Low-cost rail firm Lumo has confirmed major expansion plans from London, including a doubling of seats on its east coast route to Edinburgh via Newcastle.
It is to double the length of its electric trains - from five to 10 carriages – that operate in and out of King’s Cross and launch a new service between Paddington and Carmarthen via Bristol Parkway and Cardiff in December 2027.
Lumo also hopes to get the go-ahead in the next three months to extend its King’s Cross to Edinburgh service to Glasgow and to add an extra daily return service between Newcastle and London from December.
If approved, three return trains a day would run between King’s Cross and Glasgow via Edinburgh.
The “open access” firm, which operates without Government subsidy, could effectively treble its services in the coming years if all its new routes are approved by the rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road.
This comes at a time when, ahead of the renationalisation of many rail firms, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told the ORR to be “mindful” of the way open access operators can deprive others of revenue and add to pressure on “already constrained network capacity”.
Lumo has carried more than four million passengers since launching three and a half years ago, with five trains that operate 70 services a week in and out of King’s Cross.
Lumo managing director Martijn Gilbert said Lumo aimed to provide a service that “complements” the Government-run London North Eastern Railway, the main operator on the East Coast Main Line.
He said it was akin to a “low-cost airline offer, but absolutely not lower quality”. This year Lumo will pay Network Rail £8m in “access charges” to run its trains on the rail network
Mr Gilbert said open access operators “filled gaps in the existing timetable” and led to “healthy competition” on the railways.
Lumo fares were on average 30 per cent cheaper than LNER, he said, adding: “We don’t cost the taxpayer a single penny.”
Lumo says its services have helped to tilt the “modal share” of journeys between the two capitals - with more trips now being taken by train rather than plane.
It has also created a market for international tourists choosing to “do Edinburgh in a day”, by getting the first Lumo train out of King’s Cross at 5.48am and catching the 7.58pm train south, arriving back in London at 1.05am.
The journey between King’s Cross and Edinburgh Waverley, via Stevenage, Newcastle and Morpeth, takes about four hours 20 minutes.
A Euston to Stirling service has already been approved, with the first trains due to start running next year.
Lumo also wants to launch a service between Euston and Rochdale via Manchester Victoria but the proposal is being assessed by the ORR and Network Rail as there are competing bids for overlapping routes from other rail firms such as Virgin.
Rochdale has not had a direct train connection to London for about 25 years.
However the proposal – and other competing bids - may encounter problems with a lack of access at Euston.
Lumo says it wants to provide trains to areas that are “under served” or not connected.
Lumo recently submitted a bid to the ORR for a service between Paddington and Torbay via Bristol and Bath. This could launch in 2028 and operate five return journeys a day.
Lumo’s sister operator, Hull Trains, is awaiting a decision from the ORR on launching a new service between King’s Cross and Sheffield. This would effectively be a new branch on its existing London to Hull route.
Lumo and Hull Trains are both owned by First Group, which is set to see its Great Western Railway “franchise” renationalised in 2026.
Lumo was able to add the Euston to Stirling and Paddington to Carmarthen routes to its network after First Group acquired Grand Union Trains, which holds access rights for the new route into south Wales, and to operate four trains a day to and from Stirling via Preston.
Fourteen five-carriage trains have been ordered from Hitachi under a £500m contract, and a second order for 13 more trains, worth £460m, would be placed if the ORR approves Lumo’s Rochdale and Devon proposals.
Hull Trains has a contract that runs until 2032 while Lumo’s east coast contract runs until 2033.
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