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On a @TfLRail new @crosrail train, it stops at #Stratford and doors open on the WRONG SIDE onto the live rails. Doors locked to passengers on platform. Now platform shut, train and platform out of service and people told to change platforms as next train in one minute. No biggie. pic.twitter.com/EblooCwerc
— johnny (@tronnyjeverton) January 18, 2019
A new Class 345 Crossrail train had a serious incident over the weekend. While at Stratford station, the train doors opened on the wrong side — onto live rails instead of onto the platform. Fortunately, no one was injured.
This isn't the first incident of this nature that TfL has had to deal with in recent months. Last September, a Jubilee line train was filmed running with some of its doors open. At least in that case TfL could point to the fact that the train has some serious miles under its belt (most Jubilee line trains are over 20 years old) — the earliest possible date this Crossrail train came into service is 2017.
We reached out to TfL for comment on the incident:
We are very sorry for any distress caused to customers. Safety is our number one priority and we are urgently investigating this incident with the train operator MTR Crossrail.
The main question that TfL will be attempting to assess is whether this is a case of driver error or technical malfunction. The former is probably easier to deal with. However, if it's the latter, it raises some big questions about a project that is currently lurching from one disaster to another. There had previously been reports of issues with the doors on these trains. We doubt we've heard the last of this.
