Good morning from Edinburgh Waverley, the main station here in the Scottish capital.
Today's journey starts with a beautiful sunset in this picturesque city.
It's a great way to start off for Lumo, a brand-new train operator here in the UK, running
a handful of express trains between Edinburgh, Newcastle, and London, but with low fares
being a key selling point.
I'm going to be travelling aboard their first public service today, between the capital
of Scotland and the capital of England.
Let's head down into Edinburgh Waverley station via the aptly named Waverley Steps.
On the way down, you can find the Waverley Mall, featuring a number of eateries and shops
to prepare you for your journey.
As I'm planning to eat on the train, I decided to give this a miss this time.
Waverley station boasts an impressive station building, perfect for serving its many departures
to various locations through Scotland and England.
Most departures are operated by ScotRail, the soon to be nationalised operator of both
short- and long-distance train services through Scotland.
*** My train today will be the 09:11 'Lumo' service to London King's Cross, operated by
an open-access company which is part of FirstGroup.
The company was certainly making sure their brand had a presence at this station, with
advertising such as this being in place.
No visit to this station is complete without a look at the ornate waiting hall in the centre
of the station, which has what I can only describe as a palatial feel to it.
Today's service is departing from Platform 5, at the Eastern side of the station's main
hall.
As you can see, the train has little in the way of intermediate stops, calling at just
Morpeth, Newcastle, and London.
While awaiting my train, I also saw an LNER Azuma.
These Hitachi trains are used by LNER to operate competing rail services on the Edinburgh to
London route, and are of a similar design to the type used by Lumo.
*** As I am, to put it mildly, unimpressed with the LNER Azuma experience, I was certainly
curious to see what the Lumo offering would be like.
Edinburgh also sees a lot of these Class 385 units, also of a similar, which ScotRail use
on many shorter distance routes out of this station.
I will take this brief interlude to remind you of my social media channels, displayed
on screen now.
My social media followers are always first to find out about my rail travels around the
world.
If you haven't already, then be sure to go and take a look!
In plenty of time, today's Class 803 electric unit is pulling into the platform, proudly
showcasing Lumo's indisputably eye-catching blue livery.
*** This unit is 803003, part of a fleet of five electric units built by Hitachi in Northern
England.
They are capable of 125mph, and only have Standard Class seating.
[musical interlude for the three montage-y clips, then fade down partially over the entrance
clip, continue through to bagpipes]
Time to board my train.
You may have noticed that this train is almost exclusively airline-style seating.
My seat today is Coach D, Seat 30.
Unsurprisingly, an airline-style seat at a window.
***
Some tables are available, however this is limited to just two per carriage to increase
capacity.
I opted to sit in the unreserved part of Coach E, as I wished to travel nearer to some of
my friends on this journey.
As the inaugural public service of Lumo, this train's departure was met with a bagpipe fanfair.
Whilst I can't imagine this is a regular occurence, it was a really nice touch.
Departure today was on-time, at 09:11.
[[Today's route takes us down the full 393 mile length of the East Coast Mainline, a
mostly 125mph route connecting London with Yorkshire, the North East, and Scotland.
Journey time is scheduled as 4 hours and 37 minutes.]]
Shortly after leaving, the so-called Customer Ambassador, which is Lumo's invented term
for the train's guard delivered a welcoming announcement.
LumoEats is the food pre-ordering service on the Lumo train.
With this service, I simply visited the Lumo website, selected my departure station, destination,
departure date and time.
The menu is pretty expansive, featuring various snacks, hot or cold drinks, alcoholic beverages,
as well as sandwiches and pasties.
I ordered a hot-chocolate, and a cheese ploughman's sandwich.
I also ordered a croissant, however this was unavailable due to stock issues, and automatically
refunded as a result.
*** Something quite interesting is how the sandwiches are actually M&S Food branded,
this is certainly a catering system that i've not seen before!
[musical interlude]
So, one major problem that many passengers have with these Hitachi AT300 trains is the
seating, which I find to be too hard and very poorly shaped.
*** I'm pleased to report that on Lumo, this is absolutely not the case, with a really
decent amount of padding being available, as well as the seats having an ergonomic shape.
*** There's also a winged headrest for additional comfort.
*** Overall, this was a really comfortable seat design for this 4 and a half hour journey,
and a massive step up when compared to LNER trains.
Adjustable armrests are available, though they are very small.
The little bit of padding was definitely appreciated, though.
As for legroom, I found the seats to be spacious, offering ample room to spread out through
the journey.
*** I particularly liked how the back of the seat in front has a groove, to allow for extra
legroom.
Each airline-style seat has a decently sized seatback table.
*** Above this you can find an individual reading light, with two brightness settings.
*** This table also slides towards the seat, allowing for extra room (for example if you
have a larger laptop), as well as a little groove for storing items.
Beneath the seat in front of you, there are some power sockets, taking the form of a single
three-pin socket, as well as two USB sockets.
I often say that beneath the seat in front is the best place for a plug socket, for the
simple fact that it makes getting out of the seat much easier.
It's great to see that Lumo has paid attention to this small detail.
There are also the standard effective sunblinds...
...as well as retractable coathooks - though I find it's pretty rare to actually see these
in use.
This is Berwick-upon-Tweed, a town just a couple of miles South from the Scotland-England
border.
Just metres after this station is the Royal Border Bridge over the River Tweed, which
despite its name is not actually on the border.
After about an hour and twenty minutes of travel, we are on the approach to Morpeth.
This is by far the smallest station served by Lumo, with just two platforms.
I'm not really sure why this service even stops here, so if you do know, then please
leave a comment.
After just ten minutes, we are passing Heaton depot in Newcastle...
...and a few minutes after that we are on the approach to Newcastle station.
*** You may have noticed that our main stations on this route all have airports, with frequent
flights to London.
One of Lumo's target markets is those who currently take flights from London to Newcastle
and Edinburgh, with big selling points being its green credentials and friendly service.
Arrival into Newcastle is on-time, at 10:48.
Following a five minute wait at Newcastle, the train departs for its non-stop journey
down to London, scheduled to take around three hours.
.
We now cross the River Tyne, using the King Edward the SEVENTH bridge, offering a fantastic
view over the City of Newcastle.
Along the way, we pass through many stations, such as Darlington which receive their long-distance
service from other operators.
From this point, the on-board trolley service appears, selling drinks and snacks for the
prices you'd expect on a train.
It's cheaper than what I've seen on a flight too, going off my past experiences.
I opted for another hot chocolate, which cost me 2.40.
We are now speeding through Yorkshire, which you can easily tell, as it's raining!
However, this doesn't last long, and by Northallerton it has already cleared up.
We are now cruising at around 125mph, our train's top-speed.
It's great to be going so fast, for so little money, more details on ticket prices later!
Here is the National Railway Museum, well worth a visit, and entry is free too!
You can even see 60163 'Tornado', a new-build steam locomotive that was finished in 2008.
The train now passes through York, a major stop for just about every train that goes
through here - except Lumo.
It feels really weird to run through this station without stopping, but thankfully there's
still enough time to marvel at the impressive station roof.
This is Doncaster station, another major hub on the UK railway network.
*** Doncaster is also where we pass a Northbound service heading towards Edinburgh.
This service was the second Lumo operated train to run in service, after the inaugural
run I am currently riding.
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Time to have a quick look around the train.
*** First up, the toilets!
*** As you would hope for a brand-new train, everything was working fine, including the
soap and water being fully-stocked, and the hand-dryer working fine.
Moving through the train, we can take a look at the luggage situation.
These trains have just three luggage stacks like this for five carriages.
*** Thankfully there are large overhead luggage racks, but personally I think these trains
will struggle to handle luggage in the future...
...with the luggage lockers at carriage ends also being fully occupied.
Each train also has two wheelchair spaces situated in the southernmost carriage.
[timelapse to music back]
The train has free WiFi, though I found it to be somewhat slow, perhaps it was just temporarily
bad signal.
*** I was however able to access their entertainment system, which seemed to have a good selection
of both movies and TV shows.
I couldn't make a video on Lumo without mentioning their app - it's actually really useful!
*** My favourite feature is how you can plan a journey from a specific location, rather
than just a train station, with additional transfers on the Underground or buses factored
in.
As we speed through Peterborough, I think it's time to talk about the ticket prices
on Lumo.
For this journey, I paid just thirteen pounds and ten pence, including my 16-25 Railcard
discount of a third.
For this 393 mile journey, that gives a price per mile of about 3 pence!
This is clearly outstanding value for money, as this kind of price is what I would expect
in the depths of Central or Eastern Europe, but yet it's on a high-speed train here in
the UK.
In conclusion, I have to say I am highly impressed by the Lumo offering.
The company seem to have a really good idea of what passengers want, and clearly a lot
of thought has gone into the subtle little design features of the seat.
I was also a really big fan of the friendly service from all staff on-board.
I highly recommend travelling with Lumo, the service is comfortable, fast, friendly, and
great value.
Now arriving into London King's Cross, five minutes ahead of schedule, at 13:43.
As I'm leaving the train, why not leave a comment letting me know what you though of
the Lumo service?
I'm interested to know how you think it compares to other options between London and Edinburgh.
Thank you for watching my video on the Lumo service.
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