Train review: Lumo’s no frills ‘803’

Open access operator Lumo competes with LNER and Avanti, as well as airlines, between Edinburgh and London. Its headline low fares and modern trains are proving a hit, but are the Class 803s any good? Pip Dunn finds out for himself.

Lumo is the trading name for a FirstGroup-backed Edinburgh-London King’s Cross open access operation. Based in Newcastle, and employing more than 100 staff, it runs five trains a day in each direction between the two capitals, seven days a week.

Being an open access (OA) operator means it is limited in where it is allowed to stop and pick up passengers. Its trains therefore only call at Morpeth, Newcastle and Stevenage, so missing out on lucrative patronage from York or Peterborough.

It was set up mainly (at least publicly) to take on the airlines, with some impressive headline fares as low as £25 one way. But it also provides an alternative to LNER and, to a lesser degree, Avanti West Coast.

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