I travelled on Lumo's first Stirling-London train - whose journey time could slashed within months
New service via the west coast main line starts on Monday
Lumo hopes to slash journey times on its new Stirling-London route within months of carrying its first passengers on Monday, The Scotsman has learned.
A preview trip to showcase the service on Thursday was due to take six hours ten minutes to Euston, but that could be reduced by nearly an hour to five hours 20 minutes in December.
The improvement will come if the Office of Rail and Road regulator permits the trains to accelerate from Lumo’s initial operating limit of 110mph to the 125mph maximum speed on the west coast main line.
That could make the service slightly faster than the other direct daytime Stirling-London train, LNER’s Highland Chieftain from Inverness to King’s Cross via the east coast main line.
However, Lumo is primarily promoting its new route as offering low fares and also serving areas previously without a direct service to London by bypassing Glasgow, such as Greenfaulds and Whifflet in North Lanarkshire.
Single fares start at £29.90 although none are still available at that price for the once-daily return service until June 1, with tickets costing up to £75.90 on previous dates.
The trains which Lumo is using are due to become an even more familiar sight in Scotland from the end of next year as ScotRail has chosen them as interim replacements for its ageing Inter7City “High Speed Trains” (HSTs), which operate between Edinburgh/Glasgow and Aberdeen/Inverness.
Lumo selected the 20-year-old class 222 diesel trains, which were previously run by East Midlands Railway, as they were readily available and due to a lack of spare power on parts of the west coast main line for more electric trains.
Passengers are likely to notice the difference with Lumo’s electric Glasgow-Edinburgh-London trains and ScotRail’s HSTs, whose engines are at either end rather than under the carriages.
That means they are likely to feel extra vibration compared to the relative smoothness of the other trains - which I noticed, along with a litter bin between the seats noticeably juddering as we left Stirling.
Lumo’s low-price policy means its trains often run pretty full, so the acid test will be whether there is enough luggage storage space in the carriages to accommodate everyone’s bags, even though the operator restricts how many passengers can bring.
The seats seemed comfortable enough, but I only travelled for 40 minutes as far as Motherwell, rather than the full stretch to London, and everyone seems to have a preferences as to how hard or soft they should be.
The refurbished carriages are all standard class, some with more tables while others feature predominantly airline-style seating.
Lumo managing director Stuart Jones, who was on Thursday’s preview run, said: “Our USP (unique selling point) is price and we are looking to fill the trains.”
He expected the trains to be replaced within the next four years.
He said: “We are exploring what can be done with battery electric trains and excited by their potential to circumnavigate power supply constraints.”
Train driver instructor Heather Waugh said: “Rail needs to be more affordable and that’s what Lumo is doing, attracting people who would not normally travel by train, and that’s a huge bonus for the railway.”
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