West Coast Main Line fares to fall when Lumo’s new London trains start this month
First train leaves Stirling at 8.50am and serves multiple stations in Scotland and England
Aliver
Competition is about to begin on the railway from London Euston to Scotland. From 25 May, the “open-access” operator, Lumo, will begin services from Stirling in central Scotland to the English capital.
The first train departs Stirling at 8.50am, with the initial northbound departure at 4.36pm.
Fares will start at under £30 each way. Only standard class is available.
The new service will also call at three Scottish stations – Larbert, Greenfaulds (serving Cumbernauld), Whifflet (serving Coatbridge) – that never had direct trains to and from London.
Lumo will also serve Motherwell and Lockerbie, south of Glasgow, and the English stations of Carlisle, Preston, Crewe, Nuneaton and Milton Keynes Central en route to London.
Stuart Jones, managing director of First Rail Open Access, said: “This is a very exciting moment in our journey to launching a pioneering new service for the West Coast. Customers can look forward to simple, low-cost fares with an excellent experience on our services between Scotland, the northwest of England and London.”
It will be the first time that the incumbent long-distance operator, Avanti West Coast, has faced open access competition.
Avanti West Coast is a joint venture between FirstGroup – owner of Lumo – and Trenitalia. The train operator is set to be nationalised on 18 October as part of the UK government’s programme of bringing most rail firms into public ownership.
The Office for Rail and Road gave the Lumo project the go-ahead in March 2024, before Labour came to power. Announcing approval for the plan, the ORR’s strategy director, Stephanie Tobyn, said: “Our decision helps increase services for passengers and boost competition on Britain’s railway network.
“By providing more trains serving new destinations, open access operators offer passengers more choice in the origin and price of their journey leading to better outcomes for rail users.”
Ministers are far from enthusiastic about more competition. Speaking in May 2025, ahead of nationalising South Western Railway, the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, said: “I’m clear that there is a role for open access operators going forward. But we need to make sure that the open access operators coexist with the public sector operator in a way which maximises benefit and value to the travelling public.”
Lumo already runs on the East Coast Main Line, linking Glasgow, Falkirk and Edinburgh with Morpeth, Newcastle and London.
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