These deals are, in commercial terms, unquestionably “loss-leaders” – their purpose is to generate new travel habits at a temporary loss-making price, and to create positive publicity at a time of flux in travel patterns generally. Like Lumo, a limited number of cheap tickets could be obtained via advanced purchasing. Similar cheap deals could be found while the London to Edinburgh service was publicly operated by the Department for Transport between 20. Having said that, nothing about Lumo is really new – not even the somewhat limited supply of cheap £20 tickets. But up until now, this largely hasn’t happened, so any addition should be celebrated. One of the largely unfulfilled promises when state-controlled British Railways was replaced by private operators in the 1990s was that ultra-cheap services would appear in specific markets between certain destinations. The journey, with restricted calling points that have left Yorkshire upset, aims to expand to five services daily in each direction in 2022. New player Lumo, a subsidiary of Scottish transport operator FirstGroup, is putting up two trains daily between the two capitals. Lumo’s commercial and customer experience director, Matthew Lee, said: “Our introductory offer has been extremely well embraced by passengers and illustrates just how well our brand has resonated with the public.It arrived in a blaze of publicity with its bright blue livery and £20 one-way tickets from Edinburgh to London – a fraction of the usual price. We have to leave room for people with anytime, any route tickets as well as last minute travellers.” “The term ‘sold out’ refers to when we reach 90 per cent capacity on our trains. On the “every single seat” for £19.90 offer, a Lumo spokesperson said: “Where these seats are not available, it is because they have sold out. Unlike traditional long-distance train services, there is no first class section, with Lumo instead promising to provide all passengers with seats that have “optimised leg room and larger tray tables”. But the operator is expected to increase this to 10 services from early 2022. Four services a day are being offered until 11 December. Lumo services between the two capitals also stop at Stevenage, Newcastle and Morpeth. While they would not comment on specific sales figures, they added that Lumo had been “extremely pleased” with sales over the last few weeks.

They added that “inevitably the cheapest fares do get snapped up quickly, so advance booking is recommended for passengers”. In fact, when i compared available fares on the morning of 1 February across different transport services between London to Edinburgh, both Easyjet and British Airways offered cheaper prices – at £22.99 and £64 respectively – for journeys of around an hour and 30 minutes.Īnd an LNER train service running 15 minutes after Lumo’s £69 journey at 10.45am was £33 cheaper and ten minutes quicker.Ī spokesperson for Lumo said it met all “industry standards for lead in fare prices” and that the 60 per cent of its tickets being offered for less than £30 “represents excellent value within the industry”. Lumo, which will use five new Hitachi AT300 intercity electric trains on the four hour 32 minute route, has been pitched as a low-carbon, affordable alternative to traditionally cheaper airlines. “If other transport operators can’t consistently offer outrageously cheap fares then one wonders how Lumo could do it because they’re in the same industry with the same costs, running trains on the same tracks.” Car figure based on 50mpg over 413 miles, on petrol costing £1.40 a litreĬampaign group Railfuture, which lobbies for better rail services for UK passengers, said: “It does seem reasonable that if you’re going to advertise £20 tickets, they’re going to be available to a significant number of people rather than just the very, very lucky few who get in early. *Figures for departures closest in time to Lumo’s 10.45 departure on Tuesday Feb 1. Lumo train – £69, 4 hours 32 mins, leave Kings Cross 10.45am LNER train – £36, 4 hours 22 mins, leave Kings Cross 11amĬar – £52.57, 6 hours 50 mins – 9 hours 10 mins, leave Kings Cross 10.45amīritish Airways plane: – £64, 1 hour 15 mins, leave London City 11am National Express coach – £11, 10 hours 40 mins, leave Victoria 8.30amĮasyjet plane – £22.99, 1 hour 30 mins, leave Gatwick 12.55pm London to Edinburgh – best prices and travel times compared

Lumo train london to edinburgh