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

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 noone 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

Railcard, 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.