To a point. They walk up and down the train, do the door opening / closing, check tickets here and there, and occasionally drive the train (though it always seems painfully slow when under manual control).

I don't know how they'd do it on the tube. Presumably door closing would still require manual control.

I asked a PSA why it's slow and she told me that when under manual operation the train is "off the grid", so to speak, and is speed limited for safety reasons (other trains no longer know where it is)

The door closing works well for the DLR -- the PSA checks all the doors are clear and then shuts them all at once. This probably isn't viable for a tube because platforms are smaller and more congested.

Just an anecdote: I use the DLR multiple times per day and after a few years using it I finally got stuck on a door the other day. I pushed the button to open the door, it started opening and when it was around 80% opened, I was entering the carriage, when it suddenly closed really fast. I got sandwiched on my shoulders and then on my right foot. The door didn't open, I had to force myself to remove the damn foot painfully. It did hurt. Can't imagine what could happen if it was someone weaker (like a child or an elderly). Oh, and my red snickers turned black.

> Presumably door closing would still require manual control.

What for? The doors can be on a timer (station-specific if necessary)

People getting stuck in doors, holding doors open, etc. etc. - though I wonder if it would be more efficient to have a person per train or a person per platform for that.

Indeed - quite a lot of stations already have platform staff for checking doors and notifying the driver that it's OK to close. I suppose it would depend on the ratio of active trains to stations as it which is most efficient. I believe TfL have committed to manning all stations after the closure of ticket offices so having platform dispatch staff may be a useful use of labour.

That did occur to me after I posted - someone on the platform would be much more useful - able to directions to people, etc.

Vancouver's Canada Line (fully automated) opens the doors fully and then tries to slowly close them if it detects an obstruction. A similar system could be in place.

They'd probably never close in some stations, like Victoria at rush hour :-)

Yeah there's attendants at every station, they're just not always out on the platforms. I've seen them bitch people out for doing it. There's also announcements really frequently telling people not to hold doors.