On Apr 2, 12:03*pm, Stephen Furley wrote:

On some stations there's a railway 'phone in a metal box, with a
notice saying that it can be used by passengers to contact the
signaller to obtain information about train running. *I've seen these
at stations on the Settle-Carlisle line, which runs through some very
remote areas for example.

That's a nice feature.

It used to be the ticket agent at a US station would call the
dispatcher to get train status. But now some won't bother.