![]() Parking this cynicism in the sidings, I sit back and enjoy the ride to Edinburgh. ![]() This is even more surprising considering that Lumo is the work of FirstGroup, transport veterans and majority owners of, among others, South Western Railway, which had the lowest ratings for satisfaction in the most recent National Rail passenger survey. Stranger still, Lumo rather messianically claims that it is “a movement” and guards are called “ambassadors” - it sounds more like you’re signing up to a cult than boarding a cheap train to Scotland. In the age of “flygskam”, or flight shame, the Lumo managing director, Helen Wylde, says that she wants the service to appeal to climate-conscious travellers. There are a lot of variables here - but there’s a more straightforward sell behind Lumo too. And if we’re viewing this as a race, trains can get you there as fast as flying can - the journey time of 4 hours and 32 minutes on Lumo could beat the flight of 1 hour and 15 minutes if you add on 2 hours of thumb-twiddling at the airport and an estimated total of 1 hour and 15 minutes in transit between the airports and city centres. By contrast, the cheapest flights we could find between the capitals one month from today was £23, with easyJet from Stansted - that’s not factoring in fees for the cheapest Stansted Express, at £9.70, and the tram from Edinburgh airport to the city centre, at £6.50. The company has been selling promotional London-to-Edinburgh tickets booked a day before travel for less than £20, and in the long run it says 60 per cent of fares will be under £30. It has been described by some as a budget airline of the rails and the company’s plan is for Lumo’s low fares to lure passengers from airports to the Victorian stations of yore. I’m travelling on the maiden journey from King’s Cross to Waverley, and it’s a subtly different proposition from its competition on the same route, the franchise holder London North Eastern Railway (LNER) - Lumo has no first-class and no dining car, plus it only stops at Newcastle and Morpeth when travelling north (some southbound services also stop at Stevenage). And now, on those same rails, there’s another service with a different name.Įnter Lumo, a new low-cost service operating on the line from London to Edinburgh. The intercity trains on the east coast main line have undergone five rebrandings in 15 years. Even Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, once lamented that our system is “too complicated”, with “no Fat Controller” to simplify things. Passengers in the UK have long been accustomed to speed-dating a series of franchise operators, making tickets a tombola in which a fare might be valid on one train but not another on the same route, unless it’s super-duper off-peak and you do a handstand at Didcot Parkway. Likewise, in Germany the express is the ICE - devised when the Berlin Wall was a single chunk of masonry. If you need a fast train in France, it’s the TGV - these were speeding across the country long before they stuck the glass pyramid in the courtyard of the Louvre. ![]() Now if you'll excuse us, we're going to have another look for those £15 tickets.Friday October 22 2021, 5.00pm, The Sunday Times So while they can't beat planes on journey time (London to Edinburgh on easyJet is 75 minutes, Lumo trains take an average of 270 minutes), the green credentials, lack of airport faff - and generally more pleasing views out the window - may entice more travellers.Īnd according to train expert Tim Dunn - who was on the inaugural London to Edinburgh trip - the seats are comfy, with decent legroom, illuminated extendable trays and (get in!) those brilliant headrest wings you get on the Eurostar. They're 100% electric, too - according to Lumo, generating six times fewer carbon emissions than flying. Destination Edinburgh - although Lumo trains also stop at Stevenage, Newcastle and MorpethĪs for the trains themselves: with their electric blue livery, these Hitachi Class 803s are hard to miss. It's possible cheaper tickets will become slightly less obscure when Lumo raises its number of daily services to 10, early next year. Lumo says "up to 60% of tickets per service are under £30" but you'll have to be quicker than us to snap them up. They’re comfy & padded, and I like these headrest wings… /oBJdukwTstĪs you might expect, those mouth-wateringly priced £14.90 tickets aren't all that easy to come by with a rudimentary browse on the Lumo site we couldn't find any single adult journeys cheaper than £36. A high % have restricted views, but it *is* a low-cost service (& Govt’s DfT mandated min 400 seats per train, I’m told). (Btw, I find GWR & LNER ones fine some ppl dislike).
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