Budget rail service will offer £15 tickets from London to Edinburgh

Kieran Galpin

Train journeys could become a more standard mode of travelling across the UK

A budget rail service will offer fares from London to Edinburgh for less than £15, with return tickets priced at around £29.80 from next month.

Lumo trains will call at Stevenage, Newcastle and Morpeth, compared with London North Eastern Railway’s four stops, starting in York.

There will be two services a day each way to start with, increasing to a maximum of ten by early next year.

There are of course various caveats to these prices. The ultra-low fares have to be booked in advance but will be available up until a day before travel.

LUMO IS GO! FirstGroup's new lo-cost London-Edinburgh trains will take on easyJet & Ryanair at their own game starting 25 October, 6 times less CO2 than a flight with fares from £14.90 – 60% of fares will be £30 or less. I'm going to enjoy watching this – pass the popcorn… pic.twitter.com/pa8xVLQ0WK

— The Man in Seat 61 (@seatsixtyone) September 7, 2021

For the luxury travellers out there, Lumo will not offer first-class carriages, nor will there be buffet cars. Instead, passengers can order food and drink via a smartphone app that is delivered straight to their seats. But of course, there will also be the trolly to roll past your booth.

Despite Lumo’s incredibly low prices, the journey will take four-and-a-half hours, only about ten minutes more than LNER.

Helen Wylde, managing director of Lumo, said it was a “new rail travel experience that is kinder to the planet and better value, while never compromising on service”.

I hope this takes off – real progress in low cost, environmentally friendly, rail travel#Lumo https://t.co/bisJwY4mrA

— I Am Incorrigible also on Bluesky, threads & masto (@ImIncorrigible) September 7, 2021

Lumo is also keen to get people travelling via train across the country and not by plane. In June this year, 74,764 passengers flew to Edinburgh while 82,002 went by rail, reports the MailOnline. So not only will the service compete with LNER, but also planes as well.

Though trains are technically public transport, their extortionate pricing for inter-city travel makes them inaccessible to much of the British public.