Richard J. wrote:

Aidan Stanger wrote:
Jack Taylor wrote in
:

I've never understood why we don't have a 'serious but not
emergency' number to call in this country, something like 888
would be logical.

888 would be an incredibly stupid choice, as it would've restricted
the number of potential phone numbers available even more - it
would be even worse than the present situation where Londoners (and
probably also the rest of the country) have one too many digits...

The sensible alternative would be 911, as nearly everyone already
knows it by now.

But people know 911 as the *emergency* number in the US, so many of them
would assume it was also the emergency number here. It's therefore not
a sensible choice for a "serious but not emergency" number.

On the contrary, it's a very sensible choice because anyone dialing it
would be able to contact the emergency services.

Is 113 available?

How about 000?

For anyone who doesn't know, that's the Australian emergency number.

--
Aidan Stanger
http://www.bettercrossrail.co.uk