Great Western Coffee Shop

Heard quite a few calls for Inspector Sands to go to "the London end of Platform One" around 6:30 this morning. Is it true that if these calls are not responded to within a certain amount of time then evacuation mode is triggered?

yes

In a similar vein, I once heard at an announcement at Hamburg Airport for "Mr Flash and Mr Gordon" to contact the Information Desk.

Major Stations, airports, ferry terminal,  the Underground indeed all large public buildings need to have an effective way to communicate to staff that certain events or actions need to be done; this may be just a radio check or more complex.

There is nothing new in these coded announcements its just nowadays they are made robotically, when I worked at Paddington 20 plus years ago there was a similar system except the station announcer made the call one was an "Inspector (can not remember the name) to call the SMO" another was "will Dr Zackey Smith-Jones go to the ticket office" only problem with that was one day there was someone of that name on the station.  ;D

There will be several layers to these announcements all meaning different things, some of what the actions are, are kept confidential as they relate to the security systems the place will have.

Having worked in supermarkets in the past we had similar coded announcements. "Code 99" was the announcement to alert staff of a possible shoplifter in the Beers, Wines and Spirits aisle.

Billericay Swimming Pool uses " code brown" for a certain emergency situation. (not very subtle is it?)

Does Inspector Sands get 'paged' (or should that be 'tanoyed!') at TOC managed stations, or is he only on call at Network Rail stations? Do TOCs have the services of a colleague of Insp Sands?

I wonder if the PA at Leeds said today "would Inspector Sands please report to Paddington station as soon as possible"?

;D

There is a different Inspector at St Pancras

Is it Inspector Clouseau perhaps  ;D

Last time I was as Paddington Insp. Sands was called to the footbridge, over which I was passing, but there was no perceivable reason why.   

I have heard Inspector Sands tannoyed at St. Pancras International- in two languages as well!!!

French police and border staff operate at St Pancras, so it would make sense for security announcements to be bilingual.

Inspecteur Sands priez rapporter aux toilettes

??

When I worked at my local Virgin Active they had "code 99" as well. The announcement would be made over the tannoy as well as being heard via the speaker on the office phones, in a similar way to the Inspector Sands announcements being heard in shops in stations, it usually meant something like someone had collapsed in the sauna/swimming pool etc.

We have a similar system at the hospital I work at- a call of "2222" followed by an area will get the doctors running- it means a medical emergency.

If you find yourself in a John Lewis store and they announce a time check, head for the door.  It is, (or certainly used to be), code that a bomb threat had been received.  FGW also have a code for 'on train staff' to request assistance.

Dragging up an old thread, but I heard "Would Mr Neptune please go to the town centre immediately" at a London Overground station (Willesden Junction) earlier.  Has Inspector Sands had a name change?

At the other end of the scale I was talking to a member of platform staff at a large station the other day when he had a call on his radio.

"Rail 1 to Rail 2, what's the secret code for the mess room door?"   ???

We did laugh.