TELEPHONE FACILITIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 November 1938, Page 7

TELEPHONE FACILITIES

ELABORATE FRENCH SERVICE. The most asked-for telephone number in Paris is Laborde 92-00. Behind this simple number is a whole staff whose duty it is to answer rapidly any question about railway transport, times of trains, etc, from Paris to any pari of France. It is in operation from 7.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. Before the amalgamation of the French railways, passengers or commercial houses using the railway were in the habit of telephoning to one of the Paris railway termini. The new management decided on the centralisation of all such requests for information and the creation of a highly qualified staff to answer all calls. It is the boast of this new organisation that communication with the department which can give the information is effected in less than ten seconds. On July 9, the new number received 1,251 calls and this figure rose on August 1 to 6,857 calls. The calls do not concern merely times and arrivals or trains but requests for information concerning the many cheap tours in France. Fifteen specialists are always in attendance, each surrounded by timetables and other documentation, and among them are a number of linguists who can reply to question in the principal languages of Europe. Paris has three other popular telephone numbers. If you dial S.V.P. (S’il vous plait) you can ask any question about germs or geology, turnips or trigonometry, house-furnishing or history, but before the reply is given you will be told how much youi’ telephone account will be debited for the inquiry. Another service is reached by dialling INF, when you are put on to a news service which works from 10 a.m. to I p.m.. where the latest telegrams are read aloud as they come in from all □arts of the world.

And if you want to know the time you dial Odeon 84-00 and listen to the talking timepiece.