A NEW £8 million British Transport Police control room in Birmingham will go fully operational in the new year.

The centre has been established to improve response times and service for increasing numbers of public and rail industry callers, and for liaison with police forces nationwide.

Replacing former control centres in Birmingham, Leeds and Glasgow – and Manchester from next March – and supplementing the already reorganised London area centre, the high-tech facility splits emergency from non-emergency calls, using highly trained teams of up to 20 round-the-clock call handlers manning the first control room.

Call handlers will use ‘swift and accurate’ judgement to divert the five per cent of emergency calls to BTP communications officers in the radio-linked emergency control room and the remainder to civilian call handlers in a separate unit. Around 380,000 calls a year are received from the public and rail staff, ranging from reports of terrorism, vandalism, accidents and assaults to lost property and timetable enquiries. All have to be directed quickly for response action or advice as necessary.

Alan Pacey, BTP’s assistant chief constable (operations), explained: “Our three-year control room reorganisation programme is about improving service delivery for the public and rail industry and enables us to meet rapidly increasing demand for our service.

“We are achieving our target responses of 10 seconds for emergency calls and 30 seconds for non-emergency calls, meeting the demands of national standards.”

Providing vital increased capacity has required an overall staff increase to 130 people at the new central Birmingham Control Centre, located in Axis House, next to The Mailbox. All work flexible hours and shifts to meet fluctuating demand.

Some staff from the former control centres have relocated to Birmingham, but extensive training is being provided for new recruits, all of whom have passed a tough selection process.

Efficiency savings will come from more rapid and effective deployment of officers on the ground to deal with a wide range of incidents throughout the country.

The project has been managed by BTP chief inspector Brian Gosden, who stressed that traditional emergency numbers remain unchanged for anyone reporting serious incidents.

“Although we shall be publicising our new contact details to staff throughout the industry, the numbers for our former control centres will continue to function for an extended period during the transition, so no calls will be lost to us,” he said.

“The changes mean improved customer service, enhanced first time contact, reduced time to answer enquiries and more effective use of resources.”
Welcoming the new control centre, a Virgin Trains spokes-man said: “This new facility will enhance the already successful community policing within the areas we serve, and will further improve safety and security for our customers and frontline staff.”

Until the Birmingham Control Room becomes fully operational early in the New Year, contact should still be made using existing phone numbers. A new set of numbers will be published early next year.