For a new transport brand, it ’s a
good problem to have: for the first
five weeks of the Lumo rail link
between London and Edinburgh,
almost all the seats were sold
before the first train had even run
on 25 October. It helped that no-
one needed to pay more than £20
for an advance one-way ticket on
the 393-mile, one-way trip. Since
that initial promotional push
ended on 1 December, fares have
risen. But First Group — the firm
behind Lumo — believes it has a
profitable future while changing
the face of inter-city travel.
What’s the big idea?
The blue trains are now running
daily on the East Coast Main Line
between London King’s Cross
and Edinburgh Waverley. They
stop at Newcastle-upon-Tyne
and Morpeth in Northumberland,
and, on some services, Stevenage
in Hertfordshire. Lumo began
with two daily trains each way,
which will increase to five a day
next year. It ’s an ‘open access’
operator, in competition with
state-owned LNER.
How much are tickets?
One-way advance purchase
tickets (known as LumoFixed)
between London and Edinburgh
start at £14.90, though most are
likely to be between £20 and
£30. The company promises
60% of tickets will be sold at £30
or less. In test bookings I made
about a month in advance for the
prime 10.45am train from London
to Edinburgh, one-way fares
averaged £40; the most expensive
day was Friday (£53.90), and the
cheapest Tuesday (£30.90).
Fares for five-to-15-year-olds
are roughly half (on test bookings,
some LumoFixed tickets were
54% of the adult fare). Railcard
discounts apply (except for
Veterans Railcards), reducing fares
by 34%. So, anyone who’s under
31 or over 59, as well as couples
travelling using the Two Together
IS THIS THE FUTURE OF UK RAIL TRAVEL?
THE LAUNCH OF LUMO — A NEW, AFFORDABLE LONDON TO EDINBURGH RAIL LINK — HAS TURNED HEADS.
COULD THIS BE THE WAY FORWARD FOR LONG-DISTANCE TRAIN TRAVEL IN THE UK? WORDS: SIMON CALDER
HOT TOPIC I READ MORE AT NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.CO.UK/TRAVEL393 MILES
the distance between
London and Edinburgh4H 29
the average scheduled
time of a northbound
service, with southbound
journeys taking 4h35 on
average. The fastest LNER
train is four hours, while a
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takes 90 minutes.85%
the saving on CO2
between London and
Edinburgh, according to
rail expert Mark Smith
(The Man in Seat 61).14,000
the population of
Morpeth. It’s now the
only small market town
in the north of England
with a one-stop rail link
to London and frequent
non-stop trains
to Edinburgh.lumo
in numbersRailcard, can benefit. Lumo also
has an interesting Anytime ticket
— valid only on its trains, with
no time constraints, and which
can be bought minutes before
departure. The price from London
to Newcastle is £59, and £10 more
to Edinburgh.
Tickets are sold at lumo.co.uk,
but other train operators also sell
them at identical prices.Same tracks, faster trains?
Lumo is working the East Coast
Main Line, via Doncaster and
York. The trains can run at
125mph; given the 393-mile
distance, you might infer that the
trip should take around 3h30m
but the line is so congested that
Lumo is scheduled to take around
4h30 — a full half-hour more than
LNER’s fastest trip. Once other
operators’ schedules are tweaked,
it ’s hoped journeys will be closer
to four hours.What’s it like on board?
Trains have plenty of legroom and
big windows, as well as wi-fi and
charging points. There’s no buffet
car, but you can pre-order meals
from M&S Food, Upper Crust
and The Pasty Shop. Lumo is also
one class only, so luxury-seekers
should stick to LNER.Is this bad news for LNER?
Not necessarily. Lumo’s managing
director, Helen Wylde, insists
the company is competing with
the airlines, not the incumbent.
Indeed, all the evidence from
the aviation sector is that when a
new competitor comes in with a
radical proposition such as ‘lower
fares, more comfort ’, the effect is
to grow the market for everyone.
Persuading travellers between
London and Scotland to switch
from air to rail has been difficult,
and in the Autumn Budget, the
Chancellor made that challenge
tougher by promising to halve
Air Passenger Duty on domestic
flights in 2023. But Lumo points a
way forward.Any hiccups so far?
In the first few weeks, there were
reports of seriously crowded
services. Controlling numbers is
almost impossible, partly due to
the right of anyone with a Super
Off-Peak ticket issued by LNER to
board a Lumo service.
Lumo aims to do for rail
travellers what EasyJet did
for airline passengers. There’s
genuine hope the operator
can succeed, but only if it can
maintain free rein with fares
and reservations.TRAVEL GEEKS
Jan/Feb 2022 177