Lumo is a British

open-access operator In rail transport in Europe, an open-access operator is a train operating company that takes full commercial risk, running on infrastructure owned by a third party and buying paths on a chosen route and in countries where rail services run under ...

owned by

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broa ...

between and . It is headquartered in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

. Lumo originated in 2015 with the submission of a bid by FirstGroup to the

Office of Rail and Road The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the economic and safety regulation of Britain's railways, and the economic monitoring of National Highways. ORR regulates Network Rail by setting its ...

(ORR) to establish a new open-access operator to use additional rail paths on

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broa ...

. It faced competition from

Alliance Rail Holdings Alliance Rail Holdings is a railway company developing plans to operate passenger trains in the United Kingdom through its subsidiaries Great North Western Railway Company Limited (GNWR) and Grand Southern Railway (GSR). Despite various propos ...

, whose bid was rejected due to high estimated revenue abstraction from existing franchised operator

London North Eastern Railway London North Eastern Railway (LNER) is a British train operating company. It is owned by the DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT). The company's name echoes that of the London and North Eastern Railway, one of the Big Four ...

(LNER). In May 2016, the ORR granted a ten-year track access agreement to the FirstGroup subsidiary ''East Coast Trains Limited'', which would later be rebranded as Lumo. During March 2019, a £100million order for five Class 803

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...

high speed trains was placed to operate Lumo's services. Lumo's inaugural service was conducted on 25 October 2021. Initial operations involved the running of two trains per day in each direction on most week days; this was expanded to five trains per day by early 2022. The company has promoted itself as a low cost operator, having promised that 60% of fares would be offered for no more than £30. Onboard catering is available, consisting of an at-seat trolley service, while an identical all-standard class 2-by-2 seating arrangement is present in every carriage. Lumo refers to itself as being a “digital-first” operator, practising paperless ticketing and seeking to make booking tickets as easy as possible.

History

During 2015, in response to an announcement by the

(ORR) that it would be allowing open-access operators to bid for additional rail paths on the

in addition to those of the existing franchised operator

(LNER), the British transport conglomerate

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.standard class seating with an average ticket price of approximately £25. A competing application from

was also submitted, but was rejected by the ORR after the revenue abstraction from LNER had been estimated at £115million; in comparison, FirstGroup's proposal was predicted to result in £7.9million of abstracted revenue. During May 2016, the ORR granted a ten-year track access agreement to the FirstGroup subsidiary ''East Coast Trains Limited'', under which it would be allowed to operate up to five services in each direction from May 2021. It would be the third such open access operator on the East Coast Main Line, the prior two being

Hull Trains Hull Trains is an open-access railway operator in England owned by the multinational transport company FirstGroup. It operates long-distance passenger services between Hull / Beverley and London King's Cross. It has a track-access agreement ...

and Grand Central. It was acknowledged at the time of the application's granting that services were not expected to commence until 2021 as to allow the new operator to acquire new-build rolling stock. In September 2021, the company's launch was confirmed alongside the adoption of the ''Lumo'' brand, which was described by the company as a combination of ''luminosity'' (Lu) and ''motion'' (mo). Two months later, Lumo established its headquarters in

, creating 112 jobs. During June 2022, it was announced that Martijn Gilbert had been appointed as the new managing director for both Lumo and Hull Trains, succeeding David Gibson.

Services

On 26 May 2021, the first trial runs of the company's Class 803 high speed multiple units on the national rail network were conducted. On 25 October 2021, the inaugural service commenced; initially, Lumo operated two trains per day in each direction on most week days, although Saturdays saw only one train being ran for a time. From the onset of operations, the service rate was set to be progressively increased up to running five trains each way by early 2022. According to the company, ticket sales around the launch date had exceeded expectations, and it had experienced particularly high demand for its weekend services. The initial timetable sees trains depart each terminus at off-peak times. Northbound trains travel non-stop between London and , with most then calling at before arriving in Edinburgh. All southbound journeys stop at Morpeth and Newcastle with some additionally calling at . The fastest of Lumo's service will complete the journey in four hours and three minutes, although the majority will take a little over four hours and 30 minutes.

Operations

Lumo offers a single-class service, with free

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...

connectivity for all passengers and a promise that 60% of fares will be offered for no more than £30. Discounts via various

railcard There is no single 'discount railcard' available on the UK railway network. In addition to the large number and variety of short-term or localised promotional fares that have been available to passengers on the British railway network in recent d ...

s are also applicable. In October 2021, it was reported that there was an upper cap of £69 on one-way tickets. There is no dynamic pricing structure, the company instead favouring fixed fares with no observation of

peak time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

ticketing. Lumo promotes itself as being a “digital-first” operator, having invested in paperless ticketing and a simplified website to make browsing and booking tickets as easy as possible. It also participates in the

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the p ...

system and accepts interoperable tickets. Onboard catering is available, consisting of an at-seat trolley service, while additional food and drink items from brands such as

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

are available for pre-order by passengers for delivery mid-service. Efforts have been made to cater to as diverse a range of dietary requirements as possible, around 50 per cent of all food serviced is plant-based, while the use of meat and dairy products has been intentionally minimised. An identical 2-by-2 seating arrangement is fitted throughout all five carriages; a pair of table seating per carriage is also available. These ergonomically designed wingback seats are furnished with various amenities, including individual lighting and electric sockets, fold-down tables, and shaping to provide a greater sense of privacy. Priority seats are also present, along with two spaces for

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

users, on each train. Various forms of media content, including films and television shows, can be streamed by passengers using the company's

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

Rolling stock

Services are operated by a fleet of Class 803

trains, ordered in March 2019 at a cost of £100million, financed by the rail leasing company

Beacon Rail Beacon Rail is a rolling stock company (ROSCO) based in the United Kingdom. Its primary business is the leasing of locomotives and rolling stock to various train operating companies (TOCs). The company originated within Allco Finance Group's Eur ...

. While based on the same Hitachi AT300 design as the Class 801 ''Azuma'' trains operated by

(LNER), they are not fitted with an auxiliary diesel engine, but instead feature batteries intended solely to power onboard facilities in case of

overhead line equipment An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipmen ...

failure. Other changes include an all-standard class seating configuration, as well as the lack of a

galley A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard (clearance between sea and gunwale). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used ...

area, although catering services are provided through the use of a trolley service. The Class 803 also features

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

, power sockets and

provision.

Accidents and incidents

On 17 April 2022, a Newcastle upon Tyne to King's Cross train passed through a set of points at at despite a speed restriction of : several passengers sustained minor injuries. The

Rail Accident Investigation Branch The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) is a British government agency that independently investigates rail accidents in the United Kingdom and the Channel Tunnel in order to find a cause, not to lay blame. Created in 2005, it is required by ...

opened an investigation.

References

External links

* {{UK TOCs, current, state=collapsed FirstGroup railway companies Open-access train operating companies Railway companies established in 2021 British companies established in 2015 Low-cost high-speed rail services