The ‘Ryanair of trains’ has launched new tickets from London to Scotland for less than £35.
Budget train company Lumo is known for offering bargain prices for routes between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh.
It first launched in the UK in 2021 and travels from the capital to across the country with its all-electric fleet.
Now, Lumo has announced a new service from Glasgow, linking to Falkirk, Edinburgh, the North East of England and London.
Tickets are priced from just £33.10 from London to Glasgow, and are as little as £10.90 between Newcastle and Glasgow.
The inaugural service left Glasgow Queen Street on December 16 at 6.16pm and managed to make it to London King’s Cross one minute early.
A celebration was held to mark the launch with music performances and comedy.
Stuart Jones, Managing Director of First Rail Open Access, said: ‘This is a landmark moment which will boost connectivity between Scotland and England, offering a sustainable travel option whilst also boosting economic growth.
Lumo has announced a new service from Glasgow, linking to Falkirk, Edinburgh, the North East of England and London
‘It was a particular pleasure to celebrate the launch of our inaugural services in style with a brilliant range of guests from our dedicated team, as well as our partners from Scotland and across the border.
‘We’re proud to champion Scotland and look forward to providing the unique Lumo service to even more customers from this week.’
The £31.10 price tag beats most other available routes between the two cities.
Avanti West Coast offers a direct journey from Glasgow Central to London Euston and an off-peak single in January costs £130.80, while an anytime single comes to £205.50 on December 18.
Lumos journey will take a little longer than Avanti’s which is around 4 hours and 35 minutes.
Richard Salkeld, head of communications and partnerships at Lumo, said most of its customers are travellers who want to journey between London and Glasgow but can’t afford extortionate rail prices.
He explained: ‘Lumo is an open-access operator, which means we take full commercial risk for running the services.
‘We don’t get government or public subsidiary – we take on the risk and have to be confident that we can make it work, all while complementing the existing services that already run.
Tickets are priced from just £33.10 from London to Glasgow, and are as little as £10.90 between Newcastle and Glasgow
‘Glasgow is somewhere we’re looking forward to serving, and we’re confident we can make it as successful as our London to Edinburgh route.’
Lumo has been dubbed the ‘Ryanair of trains’ because of its cheap tickets and luggage limits.
Its website reads: ‘All customers can bring on board a maximum of ONE Small bag OR Holdall and ONE Medium suitcase (63 x 41 x 27cm). Golf clubs and large musical instruments are not allowed onboard.’
Passengers who don’t follow the restrictions may be refused travel.
