Lumo West Coast fares

[voyagerdude220]

Hi all,

I thought I'd start a new thread on here so we could discuss the prices of Lumo's fares which have appeared on Ticket booking systems recently.

e.g. Preston to London Lumo Only Off Peak Single- £70 (not valid arriving at London after 10:00)
Lumo Anytime Single- £92
Lumo Only Off Peak Return- £110- (not valid arriving into London after 10:00 but doesn't appear to have any restrictions on return journeys coming out of London Euston- it appears to be valid on their 16:36 departure from London Euston on weekdays)
Lumo Only Anytime Return- £145.


I suspect their 06:41 from Preston which arrives London at 09:28 will be very popular alternative for passengers who currently wait until Avanti's 10:00 from Preston (which arrives London at about 12:15) as the return cost being £145, not substantially more than Avanti's Off Peak fare (£121.40) but allowing a much earlier arrival into London as well as their 16:36 departure back from London.

 

[alex17595]

Further south it looks like there is some more silly undercutting going on.

Crewe - Euston
Anytime Return LNR £138.60
Anytime Return Lumo £138

Anytime Single LNR £70
Anytime Day Single Lumo £69

Off Peak Single LNR £46.90
Off Peak Single Lumo £46

Milton Keynes - Euston
Off Peak Day Return Any Permitted £25.80
Off Peak Day Return Avanti £25.30
Off Peak Return Lumo £25 (Although you do get a month to return, the others are about £40 for the same)

 

[voyagerdude220]

Oh dear! I hadn't seen how minimal the difference in the cost of buying the Lumo Only ticket is compared with LNR only one. That really is taking the urine..

 

[gray1404]

When do these services commence?

 

[jfollows]

Search the forum: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/when-will-lumo-west-coast-start.298299/

 

[Bletchleyite]

Milton Keynes - Euston
Off Peak Day Return Any Permitted £25.80
Off Peak Day Return Avanti £25.30
Off Peak Return Lumo £25 (Although you do get a month to return, the others are about £40 for the same)

The latter will be solved when Project Oval gets to MKC, because it's single fare priced a period return and a day return in effect cost the same, and throughout Oval the single has been half the day return.

As for Lumo I am surprised they are going after WMT. I had expected them to price between Avanti and WMT given that WMT is a slower budget service and Lumo is a fast one.

 

[Lampshade]

The problem with the established operator being way overpriced is that any competitor can still be overpriced, as long as they're less overpriced.

 

[blimmo]

Further south it looks like there is some more silly undercutting going on.

Crewe - Euston
Anytime Return LNR £138.60
Anytime Return Lumo £138

Anytime Single LNR £70
Anytime Day Single Lumo £69

Off Peak Single LNR £46.90
Off Peak Single Lumo £46

These are somewhat different from the usual ORCATS raids since they are undercutting a different TOC restricted ticket so the additional ~£1 doesn't get you a strictly better ticket. I still don't really see much point but at least it's less egregious than the Avanti only BHM-COV tickets.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The problem with the established operator being way overpriced is that any competitor can still be overpriced, as long as they're less overpriced.

I don't think anyone would say the WMT Only walk up fares were overpriced, they are an absolute bargain, you would struggle to pay fuel for a small car for the price of the (Super) Off Peaks.

 

[Lampshade]

I don't think anyone would say the WMT Only walk up fares were overpriced, they are an absolute bargain, you would struggle to pay fuel for a small car for the price of the (Super) Off Peaks.

Ahh, I was thinking of Avanti, that Preston Off Peak fare is still way too expensive.

 

[yorksrob]

If only we had reasonably priced walk-on fares on the ECML, however no one wants to provide them.

How is it that the WCML will have two operators offering low cost walk on fares yet we have none ?

 

[A S Leib]

How is it that the WCML will have two operators offering low cost walk on fares yet we have none ?

Assuming ~£30 each way for petrol, £89-£96 for an off-peak day return from Doncaster to London doesn't seem like a terrible price to begin with (less help if starting from Leeds, or just after one's left and the next one's Hull Trains / Grand Central rather than GC / HT, or, going off of previous complaints, if a Grand Central train's cancelled...).

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Preston to London Lumo Only Off Peak Single- £70 (not valid arriving at London after 10:00)
Lumo Anytime Single- £92
Lumo Only Off Peak Return- £110- (not valid arriving into London after 10:00 but doesn't appear to have any restrictions on return journeys coming out of London Euston- it appears to be valid on their 16:36 departure from London Euston on weekdays)

Surely these Off Peak tickets ("route Lumo STG only") are not valid if arriving London before 1000 Mon-Thurs, but afterwards or on Fridays/Saturdays/Sundays or Bank Holidays would be fine?

 

[Alex-B]

Surely these Off Peak tickets ("route Lumo STG only") are not valid if arriving London before 1000 Mon-Thurs, but afterwards or on Fridays/Saturdays/Sundays or Bank Holidays would be fine?

BR Fares shows restriction code MB for this fare, which https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ticket-types/validity/mb/ shows as:

Restriction Code - MB​

Applicable Days​

Monday to Thursday

Outward Travel​

Not valid on trains arriving into the following London stations after 04:29 and before 10:00

• LONDON EUSTON
• LONDON MARYLEBONE
• LONDON ST PANCRAS
• LONDON PADDINGTON
• LONDON WATERLOO
• LONDON KINGS CROSS
• LONDON LIVERPOOL STREET

Return Travel​

Same as outward

 

[Farigiraf]

Further south it looks like there is some more silly undercutting going on.

Crewe - Euston
Anytime Return LNR £138.60
Anytime Return Lumo £138

Anytime Single LNR £70
Anytime Day Single Lumo £69

Off Peak Single LNR £46.90
Off Peak Single Lumo £46

Milton Keynes - Euston
Off Peak Day Return Any Permitted £25.80
Off Peak Day Return Avanti £25.30
Off Peak Return Lumo £25 (Although you do get a month to return, the others are about £40 for the same)

Whilst an effective price cap is good to have, especially if the LNER fares trial spreads to Avanti, this is really childish!

If there's one thing that could make a potential GBR integrated ticketing system* useful, it's adding an alert that points out when a significantly more flexible ticket is available for less than 25% more.

*unless the forum ticketing site / trainsplit can implement this too, in which case there would remain little use for a GBR ticketing system

 

[tutacre]

I've been looking for these fares for a while, thank you for sharing! I am disapointed though.

I noticed that whoever has designed those fares obviously doesn't understand the nuances of the West Coast mainline pricing - some of their TOC only fares are substantially more expensive than the flexible equivalent / Any Permitted.

Take Crewe to Preston, £25.10 Lumo Only Single is only 10p less than an equivalent flexible fare. Not a great practice at all, but people will buy simply because the journey planner tells them it's the cheapest fare for that train.

However, the return is just plainly wrong - £42.00 Lumo Only Return, yet the equivalent flexible ticket is only £35.90 - nobody will ever see (hopefully) the more expensive Lumo fare, so they will be doing themselves out of the revenue! Definitely an error I imagine.

The reason for this is the person creating these fares has failed to notice that a lot of Off Peak tickets on Avanti (away from London) are actually valid all day, and the restriction code 2T is basically unrestricted in reality. The Anytime fares (e.g. for Crewe to Preston) serve no real purpose except for revenue protection and prosecutions purposes.

 

[styles]

Further south it looks like there is some more silly undercutting going on.

Crewe - Euston
Anytime Return LNR £138.60
Anytime Return Lumo £138

Anytime Single LNR £70
Anytime Day Single Lumo £69

Off Peak Single LNR £46.90
Off Peak Single Lumo £46

Milton Keynes - Euston
Off Peak Day Return Any Permitted £25.80
Off Peak Day Return Avanti £25.30
Off Peak Return Lumo £25 (Although you do get a month to return, the others are about £40 for the same)

I had a look at some of the LumoFixed fares from Preston to Euston this morning, for a journey I need to make.

They have similarly been priced almost all to be 10p cheaper than an Avanti Advance fare.

Avanti Advance £56.00

Purchase flexible walk-up fares for any British train journey

Purchase flexible single/return tickets & Travelcards – in 3 clicks, at face value with no fees. Every British rail fare shown, railcard discounts included.

www.brfares.com

LumoFixed £55.90

Purchase flexible walk-up fares for any British train journey

Purchase flexible single/return tickets & Travelcards – in 3 clicks, at face value with no fees. Every British rail fare shown, railcard discounts included.

www.brfares.com

Thing is, this tactic will probably work because a load of booking engines will default-select the Lumo one as the cheaper fare. Sure, the Avanti fare should show alongside it as slightly quicker, but I bet a lot of people will just take the one marked 'Cheapest'. There's also the borderline issue, where if an Avanti service leaves at say 14:55 and a Lumo one at 15:00, and someone searches for trains leaving from 15:00, the Avanti one won't show in a lot of booking engines even if it would arrives slightly earlier for (possibly) just 10p more.

It does go to show though, Lumo isn't as budget as it once was. Though they do continue to offer a small number of fares which are a fair bit cheaper. E.g. for Preston to London on LumoFixed/Advance fares, the cheapest Lumo fare is £23.90, whereas the cheapest Avanti fare (excluding Rail Sale etc) is £31.00. You've just got to manage to nab one of these few promoted fares. I got some for Lumo on ECML in the early days but it's so popular now it seems like they sell out almost instantly.

On the whole, I'll be sticking to Avanti for WCML probably, except where Lumo offers a journey at a time Avanti aren't running or fares remain pricey, e.g. super early or super late.

 

[route101]

If only we had reasonably priced walk-on fares on the ECML, however no one wants to provide them.

How is it that the WCML will have two operators offering low cost walk on fares yet we have none ?

Always thought Edinburgh to Newcastle could do with a day return fare.

 

[Kite159]

Always thought Edinburgh to Newcastle could do with a day return fare.

Sadly even if there was a day return available it will likely be limited to one of the TOCs (maybe TPE) as LNER don't like return fares, nor flexible fares (those pesky local passengers getting in the way of long distance passengers etc)

 

[Hedge Fund]

Can anyone tell me from what date I have to search to look at the Lumo WCML times and prices?

I travel from Carlisle to Euston weekly and have been looking forward to being able to browse the times and prices, but can’t see them appearing even if I search in May.

Thanks

 

[Bletchleyite]

Can anyone tell me from what date I have to search to look at the Lumo WCML times and prices?

I travel from Carlisle to Euston weekly and have been looking forward to being able to browse the times and prices, but can’t see them appearing even if I search in May.

They haven't announced their launch date yet so public systems don't have the information. If you want to see the fares they are on brfares.com and the paths are on Realtime Trains from the May timetable if you want to look at them.

 

[Hedge Fund]

They haven't announced their launch date yet so public systems don't have the information. If you want to see the fares they are on brfares.com and the paths are on Realtime Trains from the May timetable if you want to look at them.

Thank you, that is really useful.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Can anyone tell me from what date I have to search to look at the Lumo WCML times and prices?
I travel from Carlisle to Euston weekly and have been looking forward to being able to browse the times and prices, but can’t see them appearing even if I search in May.

They are visible in some of the advance data from the new timetable starting May 17, but the actual start date and fares have not been officially announced yet.

This is the list of Lumo weekday departures from Carlisle (for Monday May 18):

Realtime Trains | Departures from Carlisle all day on 18/05/2026

Train information at Carlisle all day on 18/05/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

You can search specific dates after that using realtimetrains, but remember no actual start date is known yet.
And when the service starts they may not run the whole timetable initially.
The TOC code for Lumo on the WCML is LF.

Fares are visible on brfares.com:
The link is for Carlisle-Euston fares with the tag LUMO STG (ie Stirling).
Just change the search box for other Lumo WCML stations, or to check railcard fares if you have one.

Purchase flexible walk-up fares for any British train journey

Purchase flexible single/return tickets & Travelcards – in 3 clicks, at face value with no fees. Every British rail fare shown, railcard discounts included.

www.brfares.com

Actually in that huge llst, there are only two Lumo fares to Euston, the Anytime Return at £150, and the Anytime Day Single at £94.
None of the Advance fares for specific trains are visible, because the start date is not announced yet.

 

[styles]

They are visible in some of the advance data from the new timetable starting May 19, but the actual start date and fares have not been officially announced yet.

This is the list of Lumo weekday departures from Carlisle (for Monday May 20):

Realtime Trains | Departures from Carlisle all day on 18/05/2026

Train information at Carlisle all day on 18/05/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

You can search specific dates after that using realtimetrains.
The TOC code for Lumo on the WCML is LF.

Is there any guarantee these will be public passenger services rather than say test runs? I don't know how scheduling and timetabling systems work in this respect.

Fares are visible on brfares.com:
The link is for Carlisle-Euston fares with the tag LUMO STG (ie Stirling).
Just change the search box for other Lumo WCML stations, or to check railcard fares if you have one.

Purchase flexible walk-up fares for any British train journey

Purchase flexible single/return tickets & Travelcards – in 3 clicks, at face value with no fees. Every British rail fare shown, railcard discounts included.

www.brfares.com

Actually in that huge lst, there are only two Lumo fares to Euston, the Anytime Return at £150, and the Anytime Day Single at £94.
None of the Advance fares for specific trains are visible, because the start date is not announced yet.

There's a fair few LumoFixed fares in that list? Most conveniently appear to be 10p cheaper than Advances with Avanti restrictions.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Is there any guarantee these will be public passenger services rather than say test runs? I don't know how scheduling and timetabling systems work in this respect.

They are in as 1xxx head codes, which are public services. They could be changed nearer the time (P-code cancelled or changed to 5xxx empty stock head codes), but it's a pretty good indication that this is the planned public timetable even if it doesn't start then.

 

[styles]

They are in as 1xxx head codes, which are public services. They could be changed nearer the time (P-code cancelled or changed to 5xxx empty stock head codes), but it's a pretty good indication that this is the planned public timetable even if it doesn't start then.

Got it, thanks

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Will "Any Permitted" tickets be permitted on the Lumo services (for example, if/when that's the next train due to call)?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Will "Any Permitted" tickets be permitted on the Lumo services (for example, if/when that's the next train due to call)?

Yes, just as they are on the East Coast. There's probably more reason to use them on Lumo West Coast, too, as the West Coast is not (presently at least) single fare priced, so a pair of singles may not save you much if anything. At least until the refund policy changes coming up, on the ECML if you have an Any Permitted single and want to use Lumo you're often better off refunding it and buying a dedicated ticket. As WCML singles are priced at about 70% of returns this may not be the case on the WCML depending on the ticket.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Any ideas about if they'll be avaliable on the West Midlands Day Ranger (for Crewe - Nuneaton)?

 

[dodecahedron67]

For anyone with staff travel facilities, note that Lumo West Coast will have no agreement in place for the acceptance of any staff travel facilities on their services. This includes active and retired staff.

Apparently this also includes any permitted fares with a priv discount