THE GUARDIAN

Andrew Clark, transport correspondent
Wednesday October 15, 2003
The Guardian

Train travellers will be forced to call Bangalore to find out the time of their next connection at Crewe or Clapham Junction, under a secret plan to save up to £10m by shifting Britain's national rail enquiries service to India.

According to documents leaked to the Guardian, train operators intend to educate Indian call centre workers in the eccentricities of Britain's railways. The move could put 1,700 jobs at risk at the existing call centres in Cardiff, Derby, Newcastle and Plymouth.

Indian staff will need to cope with queries about anything from the availability of smoking carriages on South West Trains to disabled access on the Fort William sleeper and weekend engineering works on the Settle-Carlisle line.

They will have to know every fare and promotion on the network, including the difference between a saver, a supersaver, an off-peak saver and a weekender.

An internal memo to the board of the Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc) reveals that the chief executive of National Rail Enquiries, Chris Scoggins, visited eight call centres in three Indian cities earlier this year.

Mr Scoggins found that they delivered an "excellent quality" service: "In two operations the agents had virtually no Indian accent."

His memo requests approval to set up a pilot operation in Bangalore, saying the "business case is strong" but warns: "There may well be trade union agitation and negative media coverage regarding jobs."

It warns that "short-term ridicule and cynicism" is likely to be a problem, adding: "We should consider this in the context of a significant proportion of calls going offshore, rather than just for the pilot."

Under the terms of their franchises, train operators are required to fund a national enquiries service which provides not only train times but information about fares, accessibility, cycle conveyance, refunds, season tickets and booking hotlines. They receive public subsidies from the Strategic Rail Authority to fulfill their commitments.

One insider attacked the offshore proposal: "They get £10m and UK plc gets 1,500 people on the dole. It's bad enough that it happens but to use taxpayers' money to achieve it is outrageous."

BT has a contract to answer many of the calls to the inquiries line, although the service is being re-tendered. BT is pressing for the move offshore, citing research by polling firm NOP suggesting that the public do not mind where their calls are answered.

The research, seen by the Guardian, found that callers were unconcerned by overseas accents as long as they were easy to understand. It adds: "Racial stereotypes play a stronger role in the 35-55 age range but predominantly do not cause a barrier."

However, a risk assessment drawn up alongside the proposal warns of a number of potential hazards such as a nuclear war between India and Pakistan - thought "very unlikely" - a major power failure or technical breakdown.

The first call centre to see its work moved to India is likely to be Newcastle. A comparison of the four existing UK locations, drawn up by consultants CM Insight, found that Tyneside was the least attractive with high staff turnover and an overheated labour market.

Mr Scoggins's memo says there need not be any redundancies because all the existing call centres are expecting work from other sources to replace rail inquiries.

Critics yesterday voiced concern that overseas staff would struggle to cope with the complexity of inquiries about Britain's labyrinthine railways.

Caroline Jones, of the Rail Passengers Council, said: "Our main concern would be a lack of knowledge about the rail network in the UK. If you call up asking about trains from Peterborough to King's Cross, there's no way they're going to know every stop en route."

The union Amicus, which includes many call centre workers, said it was a myth that jobs could be exported without loss of quality. It cited research from consumer analysts Performance House which found that 79% of people believed companies should inform them when they were dealing with an offshore facility.

Amicus's national secretary, David Fleming, said: "We think there will be little confidence among the public in getting adequate train information in the UK from anywhere else in the world."

In a statement, Atoc said it was evaluating bids from new suppliers for the inquiries service and would announce the results by the end of the year.