Open Access Trains, such as Hull Trains and Lumo are generally considered to be one of the few successes on our railways over recent years. They have connected cities to London that have otherwise been ignored, as in the cases of Hull and Sunderland. Or they have opened up an entirely new (and very popular) low cost train travel model, with Lumo (a subsidiary of First Group) being the clearest example.
No-one doubts that LNER on the East Coast Mainline has been well run since going public ownership, but equally Lumo has been a huge success on that line offering a competitively priced alternative between London, York and Edinburgh. It has modern, comfortable high speed trains, is reliable and fast.
The expectation has been that this model would be allowed to expand across the network, filling in gaps and spotting opportunities where the soon to be created Great British Railways does not.
So it has been a bit of surprise that speculation is that Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is not so enthusiastic, as her comments about not crowding out the state operator show, notwithstanding that the only reason these services have existed is to fill a gap needed by travellers. And with our railways increasingly reliant on high prices to police lack of capacity (Thanks Rishi for cancelling most of HS2!) there is a clear need for a low cost operating model alongside traditional services.
And now we should be about to find out, as RAIL magazine reports that First Group has asked regulator ORR for permission to operate a number of services to Paignton in the Southwest from London Paddington. These would comprise five Lumo return services to Paignton each weekday, with four via Bath and one via Bristol Parkway as well as some weekend services to Plymouth and Exeter.
First Group have stated to the ORR that “The service is designed to add value and capacity for the Southwest. It would utilise new rolling stock and build on the success of Lumo’s ECML (East Coast Main Line) operation.”
No-one doubts the need to overhaul the mess that the privatised rail network had become and support from the public for doing so is clear and overwhelming (memories of British Rail sandwiches notwithstanding), but it would be a wrong move not to embrace one of the bits of private involvement in the railways which is actually working for the travelling public…..
Cheap Electric Train Tickets From Edinburgh – London | Lumo
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