Introducing Lumo
First Group's open access operation between London Kings Cross and Edinburgh, has commenced! The service titled Lumo, offers lower fares, with fixed fares for London to Edinburgh starting from £19.90, London to Newcastle starting at £14.90, and Newcastle to Edinburgh starting at £6.90 (prices correct at time of publication). The current timetable looks like this (correct at time of writing): Monday London departures: 10:45 (arrive 15:17 Edinburgh) 14:36 (arrive 19:15 Edinburgh) Edinburgh departures: 09:11 (arrive 13:48 London) 16:12 (arrive 20:47 London) Tuesday to Friday London departures: 10:45 (arrive 15:17 Edinburgh) 12:18 (arrive 16:41 Edinburgh) 14:36 (arrive 19:15 Edinburgh) Edinburgh departures: 06:14 (arrive 10:50 London) 09:11 (arrive 13:48 London) 16:12 (arrive 20:47 London) Saturday London departures: 10:25 (arrive 14:57 Edinburgh) 18:27 (arrive 22:57 Edinburgh) Edinburgh departures: 08:49 (arrive 13:15 London) 17:56 (arrive 22:59 London) I have only included the Monday to Saturday timetable. I gather the number of services operated by Lumo are due to increase in January 2022, up to five a day I believe. Lumo only calls on route at Stevenage, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Morpeth, but it is operating the service with brand new Class 803 Electrical Multiple Unit (EMU) trains, built by Japanese train builder, Hitachi. The trains feature:
Lumo's Competitors Being an operator on the East Coast Main Line (ECML), Lumo will be competing against London North Eastern Railway (LNER) between London and Edinburgh. Plus it will also share the competition against those airlines that offer direct flights to Scotland from London. This is a key goal of any long distance train operator, to encourage passengers to shift from air to rail. On the West Coast Main Line (WCML), previous train operator Virgin Trains, managed to encourage a modal shift from to air to rail on its London to Scotland route - but not entirely. It managed to win a market share of 33% of the air market by 2017. Lumo is hoping that by offering customers its product of hassle free travel, more people will be encouraged to let the train take the strain, and avoid the hassle of airlines and airports. Some people have experimented with the time it takes to get to Scotland by train or airline, and they have found that there is not much difference, so why bother with the airlines? Not much point, might as well go by train. It's easier and more convenient. Lumo's key to encouraging modal shift is the old narrative of reducing train fare prices. If the fares can be made lower than competitor LNER, then potentially more people will be attracted to travel by train. Lumo's first month has done fairly well on this according to a report from the Independent. The first tickets that were on sale, have 'sold faster than expected' and the public's response has 'surpassed expectations'. Long may this continue!
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