Rail Enquiries move to India 'stupid'

Plans to move the UK's National Rail Enquiries service to India were attacked as an act of "crass stupidity" today.

Union leaders said they feared the move would cost jobs in this country and would not lead to any improvement in rail services.

The chief executive of National Rail Enquiries, Chris Scoggins, has visited a number of call centrees in Indian cities in preparation to shift all or part of the service abroad.

Union officials believe the move could threaten more than 1,000 jobs at call centres in Cardiff, Derby, Newcastle and Plymouth.

David Fleming, a national official at Amicus, said today: "This would be an act of crass stupidity.

"Outsourcing this service abroad will not make trains run any faster and will result in a loss of confidence among the travelling public."

Unions have been battling against a tide of call centre jobs being switched overseas, complaining about the loss of work in this country.

Companies have been warned that their image suffers when they open call centres in other countries.

But many firms have been outsourcing jobs because of huge savings on labour costs.

The Rail Enquiries service costs £10 million to run.