[sandworm]

So what happens in a power failure?

I can see the need and advantage of a system to make sure that only the appropriate doors open at certain stations, but surely this could have been done with information at the local level. Barcodes, NFC, RFID ... to go with sats hundreds of miles in the sky augmented by repeaters is overly complex.

Passengers are not cattle. I don't see why they cannot have local door control when the train is stopped for more than 5/10/15 minutes. The risk of death by idiot openign wrong door surely is less than the risk of death by fire/poison gas/axe murderer, all of which have happened on trains.

[sukilot]

Your claim needs evidence. A hypothetical murderer could open a door and push people out, no weapon necessary. In a fire, passengers could fall out a door onto third rail.

[pbhjpbhj]

But are those risks less than the risk that in an emergency the doors can't be opened at all and the entire carriage of passengers are effected, eg burnt alive?

The old system of windows that slide down with a handle on the outside of the carriage seemed to work pretty well - hypothetically you could open the door and push people out or fall on the track. Wonder how many times that happened?