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Lumo

FirstGroup's low-fare, single-class open access brand. Since October 2021 its all-electric Hitachi Class 803s have run from London King's Cross to Newcastle and Edinburgh, and some to Glasgow since December 2025. In May 2026 it added London Euston to Stirling on the West Coast Main Line, with five refurbished Class 222 diesels; their first months were troubled by faults.

2021Current operator since
443 miles (713 km)Route miles, East Coast route only (ORR, March 2026)
20Stations served
1.5 millionJourneys a year, East Coast route only, ORR (2025–26)

Facts

Current operator since
25 October 2021
Main stations
London King's Cross, London Euston
Type
Open access intercity train operator
Depots
Ferme Park, London (overnight stabling for the Class 803s and one Class 222), Central Rivers, Burton upon Trent (Alstom maintains the Class 222s)
Main routes
London King's Cross to Edinburgh via Stevenage, Newcastle and Morpeth, with a few trains on to Glasgow Queen Street via Haymarket and Falkirk High (Stevenage is for passengers joining northbound or leaving southbound only); and London Euston to Stirling via Milton Keynes Central, Nuneaton, Crewe, Preston, Carlisle, Lockerbie, Motherwell, Whifflet, Greenfaulds and Larbert, four trains a day, with a fifth between Euston and Preston.
Operating company
Two FirstGroup companies run trains as Lumo: East Coast Trains Ltd on the East Coast Main Line since 2021, and First Rail Stirling Ltd (formerly Grand Union Trains Ltd, bought from its founder in August 2024) on the West Coast Main Line since May 2026. Both are open access operators, running at their own commercial risk under track access rights approved by the ORR: to May 2033 on the East Coast and to 2030 on the West Coast.
Class 222 Meridian, schematic side elevation, 2 cars
Class 222 Meridian · Bombardier · shown in East Midlands Railway livery

Routes 2 routes · 20 stations

London King's Cross – Glasgow Queen Street 8
London King's Cross – Glasgow Queen Street: schematic, not to scale London King's Cross — change for Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly, VictoriaLondon King's Cross StevenageStevenage NewcastleNewcastle MorpethMorpeth EdinburghEdinburgh HaymarketHaymarket Falkirk HighFalkirk High Glasgow Queen StreetGlasgow Queen Street
London Euston – Stirling 12
London Euston – Stirling: schematic, not to scale London Euston — change for Northern, Victoria, Overground (Lioness)London Euston Milton Keynes CentralMilton Keynes Central NuneatonNuneaton CreweCrewe PrestonPreston CarlisleCarlisle LockerbieLockerbie MotherwellMotherwell WhiffletWhifflet GreenfauldsGreenfaulds LarbertLarbert StirlingStirling

Schematic, not to scale. Ringed stations are interchanges. Each strip is one service route with its stops in order. Where fast and stopping trains share a route, the strip shows the one with most stops, and a route whose stops all lie on a longer one is left out. Station order from TfL open data.

StationZoneInterchanges
London King's Cross1Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria
StevenageNA
Newcastle
Morpeth
Edinburgh
Haymarket
Falkirk High
Glasgow Queen Street
London Euston1Northern, Victoria, Overground (Lioness)
Milton Keynes Central
Nuneaton
Crewe
Preston
Carlisle
Lockerbie
Motherwell
Whifflet
Greenfaulds
Larbert
Stirling

Stations, zones and interchanges from TfL open data (2026-10-07). National Rail interchanges are listed where TfL groups the stations together.

Fleet

ClassUnitsFormation and notes
Class 8035five-car electric trains for the East Coast route, standard class only, owned by Beacon Rail and maintained by Hitachi
Class 222 Meridian5six-car Meridians (222601–222605) for the West Coast route, formerly East Midlands Railway's, refurbished by Alstom at Widnes with first class removed; owned by Beacon and maintained by Alstom at Central Rivers

History 9

  1. The ORR approves FirstGroup's application for open access trains between London King's Cross and Edinburgh, run by its company East Coast Trains.
  2. Five five-car Hitachi AT300 electric trains are ordered for about £100 million, financed by Beacon Rail and maintained by Hitachi for ten years.
  3. Lumo's first trains run between London King's Cross and Edinburgh, calling at Stevenage, Newcastle and Morpeth.
  4. The ORR extends the East Coast rights by two years, to May 2033, after the pandemic's financial impact.
  5. The ORR grants Grand Union Trains rights to run between London Euston and Stirling until 2030.
  6. FirstGroup buys the Stirling operation from Grand Union's founder; the company is renamed First Rail Stirling.
  7. Some Edinburgh trains are extended to Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High, and an extra London–Newcastle train is added, under rights approved by the ORR in July 2025.
  8. Lumo's West Coast service from London Euston to Stirling begins, with five six-car Class 222s formerly used by East Midlands Railway, refurbished by Alstom; the full timetable runs from late July.
  9. Faults on the Class 222s, including toilets, doors and other parts, cause cancellations; Lumo and Alstom review the fleet. The fifth unit enters service on 8 August.

Sources 27

How we source figures →

unverified ORR figures (713 route km, 1.5 million journeys) are for 'Lumo (East Coast)' to March 2026; the West Coast route began in May 2026, and its company, First Rail Stirling, will presumably be reported separately, West Coast rights: RAIL (2024) says June 2025 to June 2030; First Rail Stirling's 2025 application gives the current contract's expiry as May 2030; FirstGroup has applied to extend them to December 2038, with new battery-electric trains from December 2028 (no ORR decision seen), the East Coast approval: Railnews (2019) says the rights were secured in April 2016; the ORR refers to its directions of 12 May 2016, the full West Coast timetable: Lumo says from 26 July 2026, its timetable says the phased launch ran until 27 July, the Class 222s' owner: FirstGroup and Railnews (2025) said Eversholt Rail; Lumo and RAIL (2026) say Beacon, which Beacon says Eversholt is now part of, Class 803 depot: Wikipedia (citing Modern Railways, 2021) names Craigentinny, Edinburgh; Hitachi maintains them, but no source read names the depot, route strips: entered by hand from Lumo's May 2026 timetables, because TfL's route data has only King's Cross to Edinburgh, with calls at Peterborough, Retford, Doncaster, Northallerton and Darlington that Lumo's timetables don't show, stations managed: the ORR's key statistics for Lumo have no stations-managed section, which it includes for every operator that manages stations; Lumo is taken to manage none, so nothing is shown

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