ORR says passengers cannot rely on Help points working

[island]

Would you feel more confident in using a 3-button Help Point like Southeastern's offering a black "Assistance" button too?

My local Southeastern stations have only "assistance" and "information", with panels fixed above the "help" point saying "not to be used in an emergency, dial 999"...

 

[stadler]

Would you feel more confident in using a 3-button Help Point like Southeastern's offering a black "Assistance" button too?

My local Southeastern stations have only "assistance" and "information", with panels fixed above the "help" point saying "not to be used in an emergency, dial 999"...

Yes all of the Southeastern help points only have two buttons. Some of them (mainly at stations inside the London area) have a blue information button (connects to NRE Mumbai) and a green emergency button (connects to SE Control KICC). Some of them (mainly at stations outside the London area) have a blue information button (connects to NRE Mumbai) and a black assistance button (connects to SE Control KICC). I am not sure why there are two different button colours and names depending on the station so it does seem a bit odd.

 

[robbeech]

Well if nothing else at least we can see that help points are every bit as inconsistent as everything else on the railway. What an appalling state of affairs.

The one at Worksop has never worked when I’ve tried it. Multiple times over the years. I’ve reported it as faulty every single time. I’m sure they fix it and then it just happens to break again and I’ve been unlucky. They wouldn’t ignore a report of a broken help point at an interchange station that is unstaffed most of the time would they?

 

[Horizon22]

They have done so on occasion, but trying to get sense out of them is very painful indeed.

Yes, the controller normally doesn't have a clue what the NRE agent is talking about (if they've even contacted the right TOC/control...) gives up and phones the station directly to try and find the passenger needing assistance

As far as I’m concerned, all information buttons should go through to TOC customer service centres and all emergency buttons should go through to TOC control.

Ideally it should stay as NRE / TOC control, however if NRE in Mumbai are going to be as useless as they are, then this will never help passengers and your option would be more suitable.

 

[43066]

Ideally it should stay as NRE / TOC control, however if NRE in Mumbai are going to be as useless as they are, then this will never help passengers and your option would be more suitable.

Albeit, you imagine how quickly TOC control would be overwhelmed if information buttons at every station went through to them!

 

[Horizon22]

Albeit, you imagine how quickly TOC control would be overwhelmed if information buttons at every station went through to them!

The suggestion was for TOC customer service centres not TOC control but yes they'd be inundated otherwise or need additional staffing for just this purpose.

 

[RichardAsh1981]

This is what i know about which help points connect to where:



If anyone knows any of the blanks then that would be very helpful to know.

Merseyrail information buttons go to Mumbai, or did the last time cancellations at Capenhurst got silly.