On trains in the UK, I've noticed there are two buttons to open the same side of doors. Is this a safety feature of is there another reason?
I think a recent video on the Class 377 in-game could explain this. In-game, one button opens all the doors on the unit you're operating. The other button opens the doors on all units in the train.
In real life, the two buttons would need to be pressed simultaneously to open the doors, this is the same on guard's panels also. I think this is to prevent accidental door releases as the chance of accidentally hitting two buttons is much less than the chance of hitting one.
It is a safety feature, so the driver doesn't accidentally open the doors. They have to depress both buttons at the same time for the doors to open.
Just an additional point as you’ve got a Class 390 in your picture, Class 390s have flaps on the left hand door release buttons. So you would have to move the flaps before you can press the buttons. The reason they were put is to prevent wrong side door release. It’s such an automatic action as you stop at a station: Full service, Neutral, left hand door release that on the rare occasion you come to a station with doors on the right hand side, you still open the left hand doors by mistake.
