My TOC is the exact same for the newer help points. Information goes off to NRE, Emergency goes through to our Customer Services Controllers ((CSCs)or whatever they’re being called this month). On the old style help points both buttons now just go through to the CSCs though they didn’t used to
I mist have been unlucky not to have been put through to Swindon.
Is a train being cancelled and another not due for 2 hours but other train passong through without stopping, an emergency?
You wouldn't dial 999, but since this isn't 999 I'd say that being stranded counts.
I never suggested that to be the case though under the hours of darkness, and depending on the person and the location then yes it could be deemed an emergency.
That’s abysmal, but depressingly unsurprising
In my experience, the Greater Anglia help points send you through to the police if you select the Emergency option!
You didn't suggest that but I wondered what counted. In that circumstance I wouldn't consider pressing the emergency button, unless I got no response from the Help button.
AI being Awful Intelligence?
When I've used the help point at Sandplace on the Looe Valley Line, I didn't get put through to Mumbai I simply got an automated message stating that we regret that this facility is not in operation.
I thought they were link to BTP control, thankfully not been left in the lurch by a late train fail yet though,
Well if LNER can run twitter from York ROC I presume many other TOCs would be similar one would hope that they can take a out of hours call.
I would disagree with this, for general information then a call centre could be anywhere in the world, of course local is typically better, especially considering accents and how stations are pronounced, but for general information on train running then there's nothing wrong with them being in India, Venezuela, or Nepal. A UK call centre doesn't mean information would be any better, the First Group TOCs have a call centre in Sheffield and the vast majority of the time the person you're speaking too has seemingly no knowledge or very limited knowledge of the UK railway network.
From the list posted by @stadler it's quite worrying, as in my TOCs case we are (unofficially) advised to tell passengers to use the emergency button so they can contact the control room and liaise with the control room directly for taxis etc. However, if this is a station managed by another operator that could mean the emergency button ends up going through to 999, or BTP, something I was not aware of until this thread.
I suspect, as you suggest, the issue might be in the use of the term 'Emergency' which many people would interpret as things like 'there's been an accident' rather than 'the last train's been cancelled and I need a taxi'
I agree. Whilst I recognise these are RDG arrangements, I think this is an issue where DfT should give a very clear view that such call centres must be UK-based. The UK rail and ticketing system is too complex for someone without a good knowledge of UK geography to do a decent job with complex queries.
This is just ridiculous, honestly. I'd have never considered being stranded due to a cancellation to be an emergency, and it doesn't seem unreasonable to assume the button labelled Emergency connects passengers to the emergency services.
Yeah, I stopped doing those when I realised the points are....pointless!
I don't have a problem with this logic, but the issue I have with the current wording and horrible inconsistency is that it leaves pax who don't want to call Mumbai because they're stranded and in need of someone with authority to e.g. book a taxi without an obvious button to push. It's roulette as to whether they'll be wasting police time or not.
Seems like a much more sensible approach than the current status quo.
Maybe fewer people are using them after discovering that it is a waste of time calling them. Not a bad result for the NRE in the end.
One of the things wrong is the sad fact that some agents at legitimate foreign call centres are there to get the paid training and experience with dealing with customers in the west, before moving on to the more lucrative scam centres. The latter is a massive industry in India for example, and the bosses want to recruit experienced phone jockeys. Apart from the ethics of supporting this business model, those particular agents don't give a toss about their callers in the meantime.
