UNION bosses were last night close to admitting defeat in their battle to save hundreds of call centre jobs.

The Communication Workers Union said it was pessimistic that it could prevent the National Rail Enquiries Service (NRES) from joining the drain to India.

Although it was denied yesterday, it is understood that BT has been awarded half the NRES business, subject to further contract negotiations, and is to shift calls to Bangalore where wages are much lower.

The move, which was first mooted in October, could affect between 200 and 300 workers at its Newcastle call centre - one of four across the country which handles NRES calls.

Last night, Brian Cassidy, regional secretary for the Communication Workers Union, told The Northern Echo: "We are not very hopeful about maintaining these jobs and we think they are going to go."

Mr Cassidy said that, with other trade unions, an approach to Transport Secretary Alistair Darling was being considered, to ask him to intervene.

But even that seemed doomed to failure last night when a Department of Transport spokesman said any move abroad was a "commercial matter".

As well as BT, Ventura, which operates the Government's Pension Credit Line, will take over the other half of the business and aims to be up and running in Bombay from March 31.

The Association of Train Operating Companies, which runs the service on behalf of the 23 train companies and receives Government grants to do so, said that discussions with suppliers were continuing but no award had been made yet.

It said: "As explained at the Transport Select Committee hearing in November, in the light of the objective of securing quality, reliability and value for money, the offshore element of supply is limited in the new contracts to half the total volume of calls.

"This is equivalent to approximately 600 full time jobs."

If North-East jobs were to go, it would be another blow to the call centre industry in the region, with Lloyds TSB having already announced that more than 900 jobs at its base in Newcastle are to be lost to the sub-continent.

* Yesterday, TSB workers were starting to vote on whether to protest over the loss of the jobs.

A ballot is being organised by union Unifi - the results of which will be announced just before Christmas.

Bernadette Fisher, national officer of Unifi, said: ''Staff at the call centre feel completely let down that the bank is putting profits before people.

''They want the opportunity to voice their disgust at the way they are being treated.''