Lumo Aims To Be The Green Alternative To Edinburgh – London Flights
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.
Some points from the article.
Lumo Is Targeting Flyers
This is a paragraph.
Lumo is aiming to carry more than 1 million passengers per year. It is particularly targeting people who currently fly between Edinburgh and London; in June it says there were 74 764 air journeys on the route, compared to 82 002 by rail.
I find it interesting that the number of passengers using air and rail are within nine percent. I thought it would have been more of a difference.
The Service Will Ramp Up
This is a paragraph.
Services will ramp up over a period of months to the planned timetable of five trains each way per day. A small increase is envisaged at the December timetable change, followed by full implementation in Q1 2022.
There is a lot of training to do and some more Class 803 trains to be delivered.
Viability Level
Industry sources are quoted that at the prices charged, the trains will need to be eighty percent full to be viable.
As a Control Engineer, who has built hundreds of mathematical models, I am fairly certain, that by adjusting ticket prices and getting the marketing right, they’ll hit that level.
Late Bookers
The eighty percent viability level probably means that they can afford to leave a few seats available for those that need to book the day before.
Yesterday, when I went to Spalding, I bought my ticket in the Booking Office half-an-hour before travel and got a seat with a window.
Seat allocation algorithms on LNER seem to be very good and I don’t think Lumo’s will be in any way inferior.
Early Bookers
The article says advance tickets can be bought earlier than the usual twelve weeks.
So say you always travel to Scotland for your mother’s birthday, you can buy the ticket early and not be hit by low availability, as it turns out later that Rangers are playing Celtic on the day you travel.
Mutual Support In Case Of Disruption
This is a paragraph.
Reciprocal contracts providing support in case of disruption have been signed with other operators, including LNER.
I think in all the troubles yesterday, that I wrote about in Azumas Everywhere!, LNER could have done with some help yesterday.
Lumo Want To Grow Rail
This is a quote from the company.
We want to grow rail and bring people to a more sustainable, environmentally way of travelling.
They also seem fairly relaxed if you want to travel in First on LNER.
Luggage
This is a paragraph.
Passengers will be able keep their luggage close by or, for an additional charge, have it delivered to their final station or destination.
Does that mean you’re going to Edinburgh to see the family at Christmas and the New Year, you can take a lot of luggage and get it delivered both ways?
Efficient Running North Of Newcastle
I particularly liked this paragraph.
The trainsets will be able to run with power draw limited to 80% of normal on the northern part of the East Coast Main Line where there is limited power supply, with modelling by FirstGroup’s engineers and Network Rail suggesting that for five-car sets this will not affect sectional running times and will allow electric trains to continue running.
If you’re on time, the passengers won’t mind, but the electricity saved is all profit.
As a Control Engineer, my philosophy would be to have an economy mode for 80 % power sections.
- Trains would enter these sections with a full battery, that had been charged earlier from the electrification.
- The battery would provide hotel power in these sections.
- Traction power would come from the electrification.
- Trains could leave these sections with an almost flat battery.
The battery is not used for traction, but because it is handling the hotel power, less power is drawn from the electrification for traction.
I always remember Freddie Laker was keen on getting his pilots to save fuel.
Charging The Hotel Power Battery
Obviously this can be charged from the overhead electrification, although I doubt they would charge it in sections where power supplies are limited.
But can the battery be charged using regenerative braking?
In Do Class 800/801/802 Trains Use Batteries For Regenerative Braking?, I tried to answer this question using the information in this document on the Hitachi Rail web site, which is entitled Development of Class 800/801 High-speed Rolling Stock for UK Intercity Express Programme , which was published in 2014 and contains this diagram of the traction system.
Note that BC in the diagram stands for battery charger. So even in 2014, Hitachi were thinking about batteries.
In this diagram it seems to me, that electricity for the Auxiliary Power Supply and charging any batteries, can come from these sources.
- The Electrification
- The Generator Unit, if fitted
- The Drive Converter if it can divert regenerative braking energy to the APS.
It is all very comprehensive.
Handling Engineering Blockades
This is a paragraph.
Lumo has looked at how to manage any engineering blockades involving diversions away from the wires, with options including transfers to Hull Trains or TPE services operated using bimode trainsets, transfer to buses if no alternatives are available, and even the cancellation of a service if passengers indicate they would prefer not to travel if their journey will be disrupted.
Being part of a larger group always helps.
Borrowing Trains
Yesterday, whilst waiting to leave Peterborough, I saw a TransPennine Express Class 802 train go through.
Peterborough isn’t exactly near the Pennines!
On checking today, it appears it was running in one of Lumo’s paths.
So was the train being borrowed for training purposes?
But I can envisage, when a difficult blockade say around Newark is to be enacted, that Lumo would borrow a bi-mode from TransPennine Express, so they could use diesel to run the service via Lincoln.
Conclusion
There’s a lot more to Lumo than has so far been disclosed.
In the meantime read the Railway Gazette article, as there’s more there for starters.
The Anonymous Widower 
TPE’s 802’s are only 5 cars but have to run on diesel between Chathill and Dunbar area due to insufficient supply yet east Coast Trains 803’s which are identical less the diesel engines can. Somewhat immaterial now but if FTPE was still running as a commercial franchise i would asking NR whats going on!
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | September 9, 2021 |
NR are upgrading the power supply North of Newcastle. But I have a feeling that Lumo might use the battery for hotel power on the dodgy sections of power supply, so that there is less drain on the overhead.
TPE and LNER can’t do that, as they haven’t got batteries. Bt Lumo have. So it would be charged South of Newcastle and used for hotel systems between Newcastle and Edinburgh.
Comment by AnonW | September 9, 2021 |
What about Manchester/Stockport to Edinburgh, Glasgow etc. We generally drive, because of all the disability equipment I need to take. And parking in Edinburgh being a pain. Perhaps the idea would be for there to be something similar to the shuttle to France etc, where people can get on the train in their cars.
Comment by nosnikrapzil | September 9, 2021 |
You can get a direct train from the Airport station to both Glasgow and Edinburgh. A lot of trains now allow you to send luggage separately Even Lumo, which is a loe cost service allows you to do that for a charge.
Comment by AnonW | September 9, 2021 |