UK: FirstGroup reports that initial ticket sales at its newly launched London – Edinburgh open access operator Lumo are ahead of expectations, with weekend services proving to be particularly popular.
‘We have always said we intend to reimagine rail travel and we are glad people are giving us a chance’, said Lumo Managing Director Helen Wylde during a preview trip on October 21, ahead of the first passenger service on October 25.
‘Tickets are selling well beyond expectations, and we have had great feedback about our commitment to offering a different kind of rail company. However, rest assured we are not complacent and understand we must earn travellers’ trust in the Lumo promise.’
Speaking at Edinburgh Waverley station, First Rail Managing Director Steve Montgomery said Lumo was not about competing with other rail operators, but about getting people to switch from airlines to rail.
Wylde added that the aim was to provide a green alternative to air and coaches, and to be ‘additive’ to the rail industry.
Five years in the making
Speaking to Rail Business UK on the preview trip, Montgomery said Lumo ‘has been five years in the making’.
The country ‘has been through a very difficult 18 months’, he said, ‘but the area that’s come back the most in rail travel has been leisure, which our service is predominately aimed at’.
Sister FirstGroup open access operator Hull Trains had provided information ‘that seems to show us that things are returning to some form of normality’, he explained. ‘As we gradually build the Lumo service over the next couple of months and into next year, we expect to see the services react in the way that we’ve put in the business plan.’
The company is initially operating two trains per day in each direction from Sunday to Friday and one each way on Saturdays. The service is set to be increased at the end of the year and again in January to a full timetable of five trains a day in each direction.
Lumo trains serve London King’s Cross, Stevenage, Newcastle where there will be a crew change, Morpeth and Edinburgh Waverley. However, they will not call at major East Coast Main Line destinations including Peterborough, Doncaster and York. The average London – Edinburgh journey time will be 4 h 35 min.
Everyone in the good seats
The dedicated fleet of five Hitachi Class 803 AT300 five-car trains has been financed by Beacon Rail in a £100m deal.
They are standard class only, but Lumo says it aims to ‘put everyone in the good seats’. An improved design of seat supplied by Transcal offers greater comfort than those used on previous Hitachi Class 80x trainsets, and provides ‘optimised’ leg room.
There are seat-back reading lights with two levels of brightness, and one power socket and two USB ports for each pair of seats, mounted under the seats in front. However some seats do not have window views.
Lumo highlights that its trains are ‘100% electric’. This is nothing new on the London – Edinburgh route which was electrified throughout in 1991. However, the 25 kV 50 Hz trainsets do not have the underfloor diesel engines for emergency power or bimode operation which are found on similar Hitachi trainsets used by operators including LNER and Hull Trains. Instead, they are fitted with battery packs which can provide hotel power for up to 4 h in the event of the loss of the overhead power supply.
‘Above and beyond’ alternatives
By attracting traffic from air and road, Lumo aims to create more than 13 million additional passenger journeys on rail over the next decade. It is focusing strongly on yield management to fill the trains.
The full range of fares will be introduced from the beginning of December, with the company anticipating that 60% of all pre-booked one-way fares will be less than £30. The most expensive walk-up dedicated tickets will be priced at £69, and one coach will remain unreserved for passengers with inter-available peak or off-peak tickets.
These prices will require high levels of occupancy, and sales will be heavily scrutinised to establish how the model is delivering.
A significant proportion of Lumo’s staff have been recruited from outside the railway, with onboard hosts emulating the ‘ever present’ approach of airline cabin crew and the drivers being branded as ‘Passenger Drivers’ and making announcements in the style of airline pilots.
‘We believe that the offering we have on Lumo is above and beyond what we’ve seen on some other services, and that these competitive fares will make people want to use us against the airlines which we’re targeting to take people from’, said Montgomery.
‘We also believe that people are aware of their own environmental impact, but price always comes into their choice. If they can see that this addresses their environmental footprint at a good price it will sell.’
