First completed Lumo train for new Stirling-London service unveiled
Route expected to be launched next month with some Scottish stations getting their first direct London trains
Cut-price train operator Lumo has unveiled the first of the refurbished fleet which will operate its new Stirling-London services.
The new route is expected to be launched next month using 20-year-old class 222 diesel trains of the same type which ScotRail has ordered to run on its inter-city routes from the end of next year.
Lumo’s upgraded single class carriages in its six trains feature a combination of new or “refreshed” seats in “sleek grey and silver tones”, the company said on Wednesday.
The completion of work on the train by Alstom in Widnes follows Lumo releasing concept images in February.
Tickets, from £29.90 for London-Stirling journeys, are only on sale so far from June 9, with the expected start date of the service in May yet to be announced.
It will give Greenfaulds, near Cumbernauld, and Whifflet, near Coatbridge, their first London link.
The trains will also call at Larbert - which lost its direct London service 60 years ago - Motherwell, Lockerbie, Carlisle, Preston, Crewe, Nuneaton, Milton Keynes and London Euston.
A power shortage has forced Lumo to use diesel trains for the service despite the whole route being electrified, as The Scotsman revealed in January.
The new west coast service follows Lumo extending its electric-powered east coast London-Edinburgh service to Glasgow Queen Street in December.
The unveiling of Lumo’s train interior is the third by a cross-Border operator this year after the first of CrossCountry’s refurbished fleet entered service in February.
LNER also showed off how carriages in its new Serenza trains would look when they are introduced “in the coming years”.
Stuart Jones, managing director of Lumo parent firm First Rail Open Access, which is part of FirstGroup, said: “The refurbished trains are certainly eye-catching with our signature Lumo blue.
“I’m also proud of the updated interiors that are ready to provide the comfortable service that we’re renowned for.”
Adam Cunliffe, chief executive of Beacon, which leases the rains to Lumo, said: “The class 222 refurbishment will give passengers on the new service a refreshed, comfortable interior together with enhanced wi‑fi for improved connectivity.”
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