As the countdown to the launch of a new open access service on the West Coast Main Line continues, rail operator Lumo is celebrating the graduation of its first trainee drivers for the route.
The Apprentice Customer Drivers are now officially qualified after successfully completing an extensive training programme, which included both practical and theoretical elements, with the recruits learning from experienced Lumo drivers.
Dame Chi Onwurah MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West, joined the apprentices to celebrate their graduation at Lumo’s East Coast route HQ in Newcastle which is also home to the company’s state-of-the-art training simulator.
No date has yet been set for the company’s West Coast service which will call at Carlisle linking the city with Milton Keynes, Nuneaton, Crewe, Preston, Lockerbie, Motherwell, Whifflet, Greenfaulds and Larbert.
“The graduation of this group of talented and dedicated apprentices is a key milestone as we prepare to launch our new West Coast route,” Lindsay Gauntlett, Head of People and Culture at Lumo, said. “Supporting people to enter the rail industry, regardless of their previous career and background, is incredibly important to us as a company.”
Further recruitment includes customer driver instructors, qualified drivers and around 50 customer experience ambassadors across the route, with Preston hosting one of the main assessment centres.
“The support from Lumo throughout this process has been amazing, with the Customer Driver Managers in particular offering invaluable guidance to myself and the other apprentices,” Lewis Gow, one of the apprentices who has now successfully qualified as a Customer Driver, said.
“Being part of a brand-new service is a unique, exciting opportunity. The best part of the job for me is the views. The journey I’ll be driving between Stirling and London is stunning and the views are ever-changing with the seasons. I’m so lucky that I’ll be doing this for a living.”
The company claims industry leading customer satisfaction levels with Lumo’s existing East Coast service scoring significantly higher than the average achieved by other long-distance operators in the latest Rail Customer Experience Report.
