FirstGroup's electric train operator Lumo is celebrating receiving a 96% overall satisfaction rate in a new survey of its passengers.
Between 18 January and 5 February, the Customer Insight Survey collected the views and experiences of people travelling on the operator's services along the East Coast Main Line between Edinburgh, Newcastle and London.
Survey respondents gave a score for their overall journey, and for specific aspects of their experience, including:
- how satisfied they were with their experience of onboard staff: 96%
- the train's cleanliness: 93%
- timekeeping: 96%.
Lumo reports that all the scores are “typically well above industry averages”.
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Lumo commissioned the survey, which was led by The TAS Partnership transport consultancy working with market research specialists MRFGR.
The operator believes that its results “demonstrate the success of the UK's greenest train operator” and goes on to claim that its services are “proving increasingly popular with cost-conscious customers”.
The survey aligned its set of questions to those asked in wider National Rail Passenger Surveys (NRPS) and other rail industry research, such as Wavelength.
This enables benchmarking across the sector and allows comparison with the results of previous industry wide surveying.
Lumo, which recently became the first train company in Britain to eliminate plastic bottles from onboard water, juice and wine sales, having replaced them with sustainable alternatives, has also commissioned an independent study into its saved emissions.
The study launched earlier this year, and is led by Manchester-based engineering consultant. It found that Lumo saved 60.6 kilotons of CO2e in 2023, which is the equivalent of removing 13,475 petrol-powered cars from the road for a year.
This follows the operator revealing last year that its services are twenty-two times more eco-friendly than air travel.
Lumo is also celebrating its award for ‘Best in Class' category for Minimising Delay Minutes at the Golden Whistle Awards earlier this year.
“We're proud of the results from this latest research which is testament to the hard work of all our colleagues at Lumo. 96 per cent reflects the positive experiences of thousands of our customers, and we're proud to have met and exceeded their expectations as we connect major cities along the East Coast. Whilst we have commissioned this research as a Lumo specific survey, we've deliberately aligned to the question set used in wider rail industry services so that these impressive results can be benchmarked. This amplifies that this is an industry leading score.
“We set out to change the game with Lumo, with our unrivalled sustainability credentials, affordable ticket prices and customer-focussed approach. So, it's heartening that this has now been recognised by customers who travel with us.”
Martijn Gilbert, Managing Director at Lumo
We used a Lumo service just before Easter this year. Boarding at Stevenage, the majority of passengers were already on the train, all luggage storage was taken and we spent the first 15 minutes trying to find storage space for our baggage. Train staff were nowhere to be found and passengers were not interested in helping. Lumo are very clear about luggage allowances at booking but do not appear to enforce it on the train as there were a significant number of people with huge suitcases or numerous bags, taking up far too much space. They really need to sort the luggage issue, especially for those pax who join after the departure station.