Geordies deal with inquiries from . . . Welsh commuters

Commuters in Wales expecting to be greeted in their native tongue have been left bemused to be connected to Geordies in Newcastle.

The move was criticised by Welsh groups, who said the service should have been kept in Wales, or at least moved to a location where people spoke Welsh.

BT has had to recruit from the handful of Welsh-speakers in the North-East to answer calls and give details of train times and destinations.

Jane Rafferty, secretary of the Newcastle and Tyneside Cymrodorion Society, said: "It's a bit crazy - I really can't see the logic in the decision.

"It seems to have been taken completely without reason, although I suppose there must have been some kind of thinking behind it."

The move came after BT's Newcastle call centre won the contract to handle all the Welsh-language calls.

In September, the National Rail Enquiries Welsh language line was moved hundreds of miles from the Celtic capital city.

But demand is so low for the helpline - which receives about ten calls a day - that three members of staff were needed to answer phones.

Jane Vincent, spokeswoman for The Association of Train Operating Companies, which manages National Rail Enquiries, defended moving the contract out of Wales.

She said: "We don't see a problem with it. There are Welsh people all over England.

"People can move anywhere and there was no problem in getting staff for the number of calls we receive.

"We recruited them after consulting local Welsh speaking groups. We've been getting fewer than ten inquiries a day whereas NRES gets over 50 million phone calls a year.

"For ten callers a day, you only need one person to deal with them. You can't justify having more than that for such a small number.

"There are 400 operators working from 160 desks at the Newcastle call centre. Of those just three are Welsh speakers."

The Welsh speakers in Newcastle handle English calls when no Welsh callers are waiting.