The worst kind of rail journey is when you need to catch multiple trains to get where you need to go. We’ve all been there – sat on the first train along your route, hearing that its running behind schedule and mentally preparing to sprint with your bags from one platform to another to get to your connecting train, or else being stranded for an hour before the next one comes along. Life would be so much easier if you could just get from one place to another in one simple direct journey, eh?
Well, some parts of the UK could soon be treated to new direct routes to other cities. Budget rail operator Lumo, which is owned by FirstGroup plc, has ambitions to add several new and extended services to its roster over the next few years.
FirstGroup has revealed that it has submitted applications to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) in hopes of launching new direct routes between Cardiff and York and Rochdale and London Euston by December 2028. It has also applied to extend its new route between Stirling and London Euston.
The proposed Cardiff-York route would connect all four main lines from the Great Western Main Line to the East Coast Main Line and call at Birmingham, Derby and Sheffield. Lumo wants return services between the cities to run six times a day every weekday. It hopes that this journey would ‘replicate the success of the Edinburgh to London service’ and bring budget train tickets to an ‘underserved corridor’.
As for the Rochdale-London route, it would run via Manchester Victoria, Eccles, Newton-le-Willows and Warrington Bank Quay. The application proposes three return services on weekdays and Sundays and four services every Saturday. Lumo said this would provide residents of the north-west a ‘convenient and competitively priced’ direct rail service to London.
Lumo’s Stirling-London rail service has already been approved and will start next year. It’ll run four times a day, or three on Sundays and stop by Larbert, Greenfaulds, Whifflet, Motherwell, Lockerbie, Carlisle, Preston, Crewe, Nuneaton and Milton Keynes Central on its way. The latest application is to extend the current track access agreement and ensure the service keeps running past May 2030, which is when the current contract ends.
All of that is on top of Lumo’s new London King’s Cross and Glasgow Queen Street service, which was given the green light earlier this month and is expected to start in December.
Graham Sutherland, the CEO of FirstGroup said: ‘Our new services will allow us to bring the substantial benefits of open access to even more communities, at no additional cost to the taxpayer. Lumo also pays more towards infrastructure investment than other long-distance operators, delivering growth on the railway and connectivity to local communities, so the whole system gains.
‘Our open access services connect previously under-served communities and unlock private investment, creating jobs and shifting travel towards more sustainable options.’
ICYMI: One of the most famous architects in the world is building a new train station in England.
Plus: Everything you need to know as Virgin Trains prepares to compete with Eurostar.
Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out UK newsletter for the latest UK news and the best stuff happening across the country.