So it was an on time arrival in Euston (RTT states 1 minute early). I briefly tried the seats in coach E - I know experiences of seats are highly personal - but I’d definitely look to book in coach G again which has the new seats. I’d rate the seats in G as better than LNER standard class, I’d not consider doing Inverness to London in Standard Class on an Azuma!
The question is - would I do it again? To be honest, I was expecting a nightmare or no train at all, so expectations were starting from a low base. I was travelling from Inverness to London and left Inverness on the Highland Chieftain with a first class advance to Stirling. Overall I welcome the Lumo service, it’s an additional option for travel from the North of Scotland that might hopefully keep LNER advance fares in check a bit !
Since the Highland Chieftain added stops south of York it has become harder to find attractively priced full journey advances! Changing to a later LNER limited stop service would have given me a first class advance significantly cheaper than travelling all the way on the Highland Chieftain, but since that involved a change anyway decided to try out Lumo (Avanti Standard Premium advances from Edinburgh were not yet on sale when I booked).
Overall I paid £69 for the whole Inverness to London journey including LNER 1st class from Inverness to Stirling. So I’d definitely consider it again - it would depend on price vs 1st class on LNER and Standard Premium on Avanti.
Onboard the trolley made frequent passes, but there are no sandwiches etc available. The WiFi was usable for email and some use of Google docs/sheets without any drama. It was certainly better than my experience with Avanti WiFi on Pendolinos - but that may have been due to a fairly quiet train.
If your travelling alone and want peace to work, seat G4* is a single seat but without a window - but you can get enough of a view out of adjacent windows to see where you are without varying light issues affecting laptop screen. If your prone to travel sickness it might not be good though!
As it was the train was quiet enough that I could have moved to a table seat and hogged it the whole way - seat reservations were not displayed, so it wasn’t possible to know if another seat had a future reservation or not! Is the 1222 Southbound from Stirling a quieter service or is the bad publicity since I bought my advance vastly suppressing demand?
As the train wasn’t busy there were no luggage problems. The overhead racks are useless though, I had to partly unpack my modest backpack to fit. This could be a nightmare for ScotRail! They seem to be aggressively sloped - a flatter design would give more space - is ScotRsil planning to modify the overhead racks.
What was noticeable was the tapered sides impact your space quite noticeably vs a Mark III. The coach felt smoother and quieter cruising at higher speeds on the WCML then slower speeds stopping and starting for the Scottish stops.
Unless you had 2+1 seating throughout which would need longer trains, there is ultimately no way the class 222s won’t be a significant downgrade on the Inter7city HSTs. That said, if Lumo could extend one of their Stirling services to Inverness, I’d consider doing the full trip in coach G. I’d need to be paid to do that in standard class on an Azuma!
* Just a note to add, there is only one seat back table at seat G4 - the seat back on the aisle seat in front does not have a fold down table.
. I'm seeing one most mornings at the moment as there's one goes through Clifton southbound at the point I'm returning from my morning run.
