FirstGroup targets the road market with its Lumo Paignton plan

FirstGroup is looking to take on the road market with its proposed open access service between London Paddington and Paignton.

The company has applied to the Office of Rail and Road to start running services via Bath and Bristol, under its Lumo brand, from May 2028.

Speaking to RAIL, First Rail Managing Director Steve Montgomery said the success of Lumo on the East Coast Main Line, where services have targeted the domestic airline market, is some-thing FirstGroup wants to re-create in the South West.

“It’s looking at a market that’s under-served,” he said. “Lumo’s set-up on the Edinburgh to London route is about recognising the market to get people off airlines. It’s been very successful.

“Paignton is very similar. We all know the roads going into that part of the world are not the best.”

If approved by the regulator, five trains a day will call at Bath Spa, Bristol Temple Meads, Taunton, Exeter St Davids and Torquay, with a sixth also beginning at Highbridge & Burnham.

Currently, there are three direct services between Paignton and Paddington, with the first not leaving the Devon resort until 1055.

Travelling via the Berks and Hants Line, the existing Great Western Railway service takes between three and three-and-a- half hours. FirstGroup said its Lumo operation via Bristol is expected to take 3hrs 20mins, compared with four to five hours in the car.

Montgomery said the service would also be about intermediate journeys, such as Paignton to Bristol and Bath. Presently, three trains a day link Temple Meads and Paignton, all run by CrossCountry, with no direct service between Paignton and Bath.

In its announcement on December 5, FirstGroup said rail had a 29% modal share between the Torbay area and London, against 71% for road.

The company said its open access service would “accelerate tourism, drive growth and support jobs” in the Torbay tourism sector, which is still recovering from

“lower growth during the pandemic and the resurgence in overseas travel”.

It added that it hopes the service will bring “the South West closer together”, as well as offering more options for travelling to London.

Montgomery said that with Lumo’s East Coast Main Line operation, FirstGroup had been “able to demonstrate this is an opportunity to grow the market”.

He added: “It will bring more customers than GWR, and any other operator will benefit from this. We think it’s a win-win”.

Asked by RAIL why the FirstGroup-run GWR hadn’t looked at such a service, Montgomery said that since the pandemic, operators under National Rail Contracts had found cost challenges, suggesting that getting such a plan through the Department for Transport might be “a struggle”