Final whistle blows on slam door trains

It is the end of an era today for hundreds of thousands of mainline rail commuters.

The last of the old slam-door trains used by South West Trains, which operates some of the busiest commuter routes in the UK, is being pensioned off.

The final service was due to depart Waterloo at 11.35am today, bound for Bournemouth.

For some, the trains evoke memories of the 1945 film Brief Encounter and the lingering farewell between Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.

But experts say the new trains with sliding doors and fixed windows are much safer. The main danger of slam-door trains was the habit of commuters, eager to be first off the carriage, to open the doors as the train came into the station and stand on the running boards, jumping off while the locomotive was still moving.

Passengers were injured in falls and by the swinging doors.

In new carriages, sliding doors cannot be opened until the train has stopped.

Many of the commuters injured in the 1991 Cannon Street rail crash had been standing on the running boards when their morning rush- hour service smashed into the buffers. It left two dead and 248 injured, many seriously.

Three years before, slam-door carriages were cited as a contributing factor in the toll of the Clapham Junction disaster, which killed 35 people. Sir Anthony Hidden QC, who conducted the crash investigation, recommended then that slam- door trains be replaced.

In 1992 the Health and Safety Executive, the national watchdog, recommended that slamdoor stock be phased out as soon as possible.

Rail chiefs promised to end slam-door services on the busy north Kent routes by 1995 - but problems with the new stock delayed the process for a decade.

Southern Eastern Trains still runs 10 slamdoor services, with the last one set to be decommissioned in September. Southern Railway has 28, with the final service scheduled for 19 August.