Travel: Not for you-hoo

A REGULAR user of Old Street tube station in London (Independent Traveller, 12 February) wondered why the public telephones were left ringing unanswered at all times of the day. The reason seems to be that answering them can be dangerous.

Ted Brown of Skipton writes to say that he found himself on the platform of King's Cross tube station on the same day as the Bishopsgate bombing. He was about to use the phone, when it rang. 'Being the sort of person I am, I answered it, and was told that there was a bomb on the station timed to explode in 10 minutes.' Mr Brown alerted staff and King's Cross Station was cleared. He now wonders if he was right to answer the phone, as the whole episode depended on someone doing just that. As far as he knows, there was no bomb. 'Should all public phones be for outgoing calls only?'

As another reader suggests that public phones are used by drug dealers, perhaps this would be a good idea.

(Photograph and map omitted)