lumo. FirstGroup's open access operation on ECML

[whole diary]

[johnneyw]

Some controversy already about Lumo's ticket price publicity being not all it's cracked up to be.

https://inews.co.uk/news/lumo-tickets-prices-trains-london-to-edinburgh-booking-seats-1261487

[IndustryInsider]

Though to throw a curveball opinion, in many ways the launch couldn’t have gone much better.  Fully booked trains for weeks in advance, cheap fares and (mostly) good publicity.

[Timmer]

Though to throw a curveball opinion, in many ways the launch couldn’t have gone much better.  Fully booked trains for weeks in advance, cheap fares and (mostly) good publicity.

Certainly shows their’s a market for this kind of service. Could do with something on the WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line) between London and Glasgow. Fares on Avanti are ridiculously expensive now.

[ChrisB]

Some controversy already about Lumo's ticket price publicity being not all it's cracked up to be.

https://inews.co.uk/news/lumo-tickets-prices-trains-london-to-edinburgh-booking-seats-1261487

The author didn't read the publicity! The cheap *introductory fares* were stated to only be available to the end of November - so why was he looking for February 2022 travel? And Advance fares are made available that far ahead, so the only fare he found and quoted was the walk up fare.....

[johnneyw]

There's a rather favourable review of the service here.

https://www.mylondon.news/lifestyle/lifestyle-opinion/lumo-train-london-edinburgh-travel-22121347

[IndustryInsider]

Surely much cheaper by coach? 

[stuving]

Lumo has made a medium-sized thing of having just one class, and even having two classes is often criticised as out of date here in Britain. Meanwhile, over on the Paris-Lyon route, Trenitalia are due to start an open access service in December, and SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) have announced their commercial response. But here, both operators have been adding new posher than first classes to compete with each other.

Trenitalia have not yet set a starting date, but their Frecciarossa trains will have Standard, Premium, Affaires + Bistro, Business, and Executive. SNCF will keepp the inOui brand but the trains will be new, offering just one new class - Business premiere - as well as première and deuxième.

This service started today. Two departures each way, taking about seven hours - so just two diagrams. It's quick from Paris to Lyon - 2 hours - but then getting to Turin takes nearly four hours for a shorter distance. Still the morning run into Italy was full - but at €29 for Standard Comfort Class why wouldn't it be?