Lumo - new Open Access operator on the East Coast Main Line

[HBP]

Are we 100% sure this is a real company and not just a website task from The Apprentice?

I did wonder when the PayPal receipt for my purchase gave contact details of ECTL with a gmail.com address.

 

[43096]

It would be interesting to understand the crew diagrams and roster for this service.

You can’t call them “crew”, they’re “ambassadors” and some other woke term instead of “drivers”.

 

[ivorytoast28]

So looking at the launch week initial timetable appears to be on Monday to Friday:

Kings Cross 1045 arriving Edinburgh 1517
Kings Cross 1436 arriving Edinburgh 1915

Edinburgh 0911 arriving Kings Cross 1348
Edinburgh 1612 arriving Kings Cross 2047

Saturday:

Kings Cross 1025 arriving Edinburgh 1457

Edinburgh 0849 arriving Kings Cross 1315

Sunday:

Kings Cross 1023 arriving Edinburgh 1440
Kings Cross 1624 arriving Edinburgh 2054

Edinburgh 1053 arriving Kings Cross 1456
Edinburgh 1545 arriving Kings Cross 2021

Interesting that Saturday is only one return journey.

Also they desperately need to work on getting better paths out of Network Rail. Whilst they are mostly going after the budget market which is often more price than time conscious it's a fairly terrible state of affairs that they're running non-stop from Newcastle to Stevenage and yet are sometimes slower than LNER services calling at York and Darlington!

Definitely need better paths, putting the 1436 right behind the 1430 LNER stopping service doesn't seem great, non stop to Newcastle but takes 3hrs11 to do it presumably waiting behind the 1430 at all 6 stops

 

[Ianno87]

I notice Lumo's "Advance" fares are called "LumoFixed".

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

"LDN to EDI £19.90".
Doesn't work for either rail or airline codes...

 

[Glenn1969]

Having Googled Lumo I got 4 different results from a variety of fields. Hope no one gets confused and hope they don't get sued by any of the other 3 for use of the name

 

[jfollows]

I couldn’t find out the train times, the spelling mistakes are incompetent and “investing in IT” is what their lady just said on Sky News - investing how much I ask myself? Not impressed.

PS I just misspelled “incompetent” but I spotted my error and corrected it. Not hard to do.

 

[deltic]

That purple is manky on-screen on a Windows machine. Same horrid colour the Scout Association use, which apparently looks fine on a Mac...oops!

Edit: though it's a very comprehensive site which is quite simple, clear and well put together, and I've not noticed any misinformation, yet at least! Interesting that they specifically mention they have changed the colour temperature of the interior lighting over the standard 80x, which is yet another one in the eye for RUK "naysayers" if true!

Apart from there being no launch date and no timetable that I can see - not knowing either I just see the option to book a lot of LNER services at far higher fares than advertised on the website and come away confused.

 

[Peter C]

Various bits of their "Passenger's Charter" page aren't quite right (my bold for all):

This Charter does not affect your legal rights, which are set out in the National Rail Conditions of Travel and can be found at national rail.co.uk. Copies of this Charter can be obtained from our lumo website or app.

Contents​

• How to contact us
• How to plan your journey
• How to buy a ticket & reserve a seat
• When travelling with us
• How we can help with Passenger Assistance
• Delivering our promise to you
• Service Disruption
• How to Claim Delay Repay
• How to claim a refund
• Feedback and complaints
• Rail Ombudsman and consumer watchdogs
• Rail Passenger Rights and Obligations Regulation
• Network map [no link]

Webform: www.lumo.co.uk/webforms
Twitter: lumo Twitter
Email: [email protected] Post: Freepost LUMO CUSTOMER SUPPORT [no new line?]

HOW TO PLAN YOUR JOURNEY​

Whether you know where to travel, or you’re in need of some advice, you can get some inspiration from our destination guides which include some great ways to explore the places where we call and give you special offers at [www.lumo.co.uk]. Once you’ve decided to travel, we want to make it as easy and simple as possible for you to plan your journey. There are a number of handy planning tools which can help you get the information you need, so choose the most convenient one for you.

This one had the link in bold anyway. The square brackets make me think that it's some sort of placeholder.


And then at the top of the page, when you try hovering over "Reimagining Rail", the "Our Fleet" subpage pops up at the top of the drop-down menu. Not very intuitive.
On the "Our Fleet" page, there's this diagram of their units (well, it's actually a set of pictures, one for each coach). Try and count the number of pixels )):

And as an aside, could someone explain why this is the case (from their "Railcards" page):

The only exception for Lumo not accepting railcards is Veteran’s Railcards – we’re sorry but for now you can’t use these with Lumo tickets although we’re looking into changing that in the future – all other railcards are accepted with our LumoFixed and Anytime tickets.

Just curious!

-Peter

EDIT: Also just noticed this page: https://www.firstgroupcareers.com/company/ect/meetourteam/
Go to "Who we are", then hover over "Our Philosophy", and then click "Our People" - at the bottom of the page, you can "Meet our team". This takes you to the link above.

 

[InOban]

This could spell the end of the coach services.

 

[quantinghome]

This is the new style, coming from websites allowed to be designed principally by the sales team, that giving a "menu" of the offerings is not required, and you are here TO BOOK. It can be seen elsewhere, such as some airlines.

It seems to come from Woke-style system designers who find reading a timetable too difficult - so they presume everyone else finds it too difficult as well.

I like how 'woke' now means nothing more than 'something which I find objectionable'.

 

[Darandio]

And as an aside, could someone explain why this is the case (from their "Railcards" page):

You mean the non-acceptance of the veteran's railcard? Hull Trains and Grand Central are the same.

 

[Peter C]

You mean the non-acceptance of the veteran's railcard? Hull Trains and Grand Central are the same.

Ah OK, didn't know that so it seemed odd that they weren't accepting them!
Thanks.

-Peter

 

[TheBigD]

Various bits of their "Passenger's Charter" page aren't quite right (my bold for all):







This one had the link in bold anyway. The square brackets make me think that it's some sort of placeholder.


And then at the top of the page, when you try hovering over "Reimagining Rail", the "Our Fleet" subpage pops up at the top of the drop-down menu. Not very intuitive.
On the "Our Fleet" page, there's this diagram of their units (well, it's actually a set of pictures, one for each coach). Try and count the number of pixels )):


And as an aside, could someone explain why this is the case (from their "Railcards" page):

Just curious!

-Peter

So from the above seat maps we can deduce that the trains have 394 seats with just 4 toilets, will be interesting if they don't get tanked/emptied for any reason.
Nearly all airline style seating with just 8 seats per carriage around tables of 4.
Less luggage stacks, though the overhead racks are pretty spacious, seems at odds with the fact that LNER have purposely removed 4 seats from most carriages (9 car Azumas) to provide additional luggage stacks. I suspect those with bikes find a large amount of luggage in the bike spaces.

 

[superalbs]

Various bits of their "Passenger's Charter" page aren't quite right (my bold for all):







This one had the link in bold anyway. The square brackets make me think that it's some sort of placeholder.


And then at the top of the page, when you try hovering over "Reimagining Rail", the "Our Fleet" subpage pops up at the top of the drop-down menu. Not very intuitive.
On the "Our Fleet" page, there's this diagram of their units (well, it's actually a set of pictures, one for each coach). Try and count the number of pixels )):


And as an aside, could someone explain why this is the case (from their "Railcards" page):

Just curious!

-Peter

EDIT: Also just noticed this page: https://www.firstgroupcareers.com/company/ect/meetourteam/
Go to "Who we are", then hover over "Our Philosophy", and then click "Our People" - at the bottom of the page, you can "Meet our team". This takes you to the link above.

94 seats per carriage, wow! That's almost as much as Flixtrain (which I believe is over 100).

 

[Bletchleyite]

The LumoEats thing could be quite innovative. Suggests you will be able to pre-order hot food from M&S and other partners to be delivered to your seat, as well as a traditional trolley service. I've long thought that TOC should try to team up with outfits like Leon to serve tasty meals instead of soggy microwaved bacon rolls etc.

That is a fair point (though I think Leon has lost its way since the EuroGarages mob bought it, with a considerably less attractive menu than before). One surprising thing is that they don't (unlike Avanti and LNER) seem to be offering "order from the app on board for at seat delivery" but instead you need to wait for the trolley, if I read it right.

 

[jfollows]

You mean the non-acceptance of the veteran's railcard? Hull Trains and Grand Central are the same.

The paragraph quoted reads to me that the only railcard being accepted is the Veteran's Railcard, because it's the only exception to "not accepting railcards" (their words). However this then makes the rest of the paragraph less than sensible, so finally I concluded that what they meant to say was that they accept all railcards except the Veteran's Railcard. Am I the only one who finds this text just bad- "The only exception for Lumo not accepting railcards is Veteran’s Railcards"?
EDIT At the very least they should omit the "not" in the sentence, surely?

 

[RailWonderer]

Given that this service will be using 5 car IETs, will be considerably cheaper than LNER and allegedly use FISA lean seating, I expect most services to be full and possibly standing if the paytrain approach without compulsory reservations is introduced. Only the fact it skips busy stops like Peterborough, Doncaster, York and Darlington and will be slower than most LNER equivalent services indicates the loadings might not be so bad.

 

[Bletchleyite]

94 seats per carriage, wow! That's almost as much as Flixtrain (which I believe is over 100).

Remember that they are 26m vehicles - you can get quite a lot in with 3m extra length than say a Mk3.

 

[Ianno87]

That is a fair point (though I think Leon has lost its way since the EuroGarages mob bought it, with a considerably less attractive menu than before). One surprising thing is that they don't (unlike Avanti and LNER) seem to be offering "order from the app on board for at seat delivery" but instead you need to wait for the trolley, if I read it right.

That does seem to be an issue with LNER; the staff end up thinly spread jumping between the shop and at-seat.

Lumo do have the advantage of the long non-stop run to Newcastle to make sure everybody gets served.

 

[ivorytoast28]

You mean the non-acceptance of the veteran's railcard? Hull Trains and Grand Central are the same.

But is there any particular reason that one isn't valid when the others are? Seems a bit random?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Given that this service will be using 5 car IETs, will be considerably cheaper than LNER and allegedly use FISA lean seating

It's not the LEAN, it's a different seat. I think it is FISA made though. There is some discussion of what it is on the rolling stock thread linked above.

 

[thejuggler]

Awful website.

Fingal's Cave from Edinburgh?

I hope readers don't think its round the corner as it took me best part of a day and I was staying in Mull!

 

[JonathanH]

This could spell the end of the coach services.

Why? The long run position will be that Lumo can't offer cheaper fares and the coaches serve other places on their way between London and Scotland. Also, there doesn't appear to be any plan to run overnight.

The coach flow has always been greater to Glasgow than Edinburgh in any case.

 

[Kite159]

I noticed when buying a ticket the option for an E-Ticket suggests it is in fact a mobile ticket, needing the app.

Unless it's the usual First style wording which actually sends a PDF e-ticket via email.

 

[superalbs]

It's not the LEAN, it's a different seat. I think it is FISA made though. There is some discussion of what it is on the rolling stock thread linked above.

It's from Transcal, the Aerolite or something...

 

[mad_rich]

As somebody who travels between Newcastle and London, it's great to see some choice and competition. (I know there's competition if I wanted to take XC or TP to York, then GC, but I don't.)

Three hours' journey time - bang on halfway between a typical fast LNER train (2h50) and a slow one (3h10) seems fine. The Anytime fare isn't massively cheaper than a LNER off-peak (£59 vs £76). Maybe if they get up to five trains and I can travel in the peak, it will be useful.

Shame about the lack of first class. Maybe they will do 'standard plus', where one coach gets a free seat next to you and inclusive catering. Seems unlikely.

 

[Darandio]

Shame about the lack of first class. Maybe they will do 'standard plus', where one coach gets a free seat next to you and inclusive catering. Seems unlikely.

I very much doubt that. At the prices they are charging they need bums on seats, not seats surrounded by fresh air.

 

[superalbs]

Just read some T&Cs on their website. It states that 350 seats can be reserved, while the rest cannot.

Apparently you must sit in your reserved seat too, unless you don't have one.

 

[Ianno87]

Shame about the lack of first class. Maybe they will do 'standard plus', where one coach gets a free seat next to you and inclusive catering. Seems unlikely.

You could just buy two seats....