Passenger fears as wrong doors open

Tube commuters grabbed handrails for support today to stop themselves falling out of a carriage after the automatic doors opened on the wrong side of their train as a mainline service was passing.

Passengers only avoided possible serious injury because they were standing on the other side of the carriage ready to alight.

The incident happened at 11am as the Hammersmith & City line train pulled into Royal Oak where the Tube runs next to mainline services. "It was really scary and I hate to think what would have happened if the train had been packed," said passenger John Cushing, 25, a newsreader from Harpenden.

"Instead of the platform side doors opening, the other doors opened as the train passed. If it had been rush hour, passengers would have been leaning against the doors that wrongly opened."

The Tube driver, investigators believe, pressed the wrong button. The train has been taken out of service and the driver has had routine drug and alcohol tests and stood down from duty.