Lumo train passing through a field of snow
Lumo train passing through a field of snow

Gold award for Lumo leading reliability on Britain's railway

Lumo has been awarded Gold at the prestigious 2024 Golden Spanner Awards

Published 25 Nov 2024

The Lumo (Class 803) fleet has been awarded Gold – the highest accolade possible – at the prestigious 2024 Golden Spanner Awards. 

The 100% electric Lumo fleet was built in the North East of England at Hitachi Rail’s Newton Aycliffe manufacturing facility. The fleet continues to help transform customer journeys on the East Coast Main Line alongside the 96% customer satisfaction score achieved by Lumo earlier this year. 

Lumo’s fleet is currently the UK’s most reliable fleet of trains. The company operates popular open-access services connecting Edinburgh with Morpeth, Newcastle, Stevenage and London King’s Cross. 
The fleet’s incredible reliability during the past 12 months is a result of industry-leading collaboration between Lumo and Hitachi’s maintenance teams, and integration of new world-class digital systems.

Martijn Gilbert, Managing Director of Lumo, said: “This Golden Spanner award is a real reflection of the exceptional efforts of our team and those of our partners at Hitachi. It highlights the strides we’ve made in setting new standards for reliability while pioneering sustainability goals to make rail even cleaner, greener and truly customer focussed. 

“Our focus remains on providing a dependable, eco-friendly service that meets the evolving needs of customers, and this prestigious recognition reinforces the value of the Lumo approach.”

The Golden Spanner awards are organised by Modern Railways and are the rail industry's most prestigious awards for fleet reliability based on reliability data from past 12 months. 

Jim Brewin, Chief Director U.K. & Ireland at Hitachi Rail, said: “For the third consecutive year, Hitachi Rail’s maintenance team has been honoured with the industry’s highest award for reliability. 
“This achievement is a testament to our strong partnership with our customers, whose daily collaboration is vital in establishing new standards in train reliability.

 “A huge congratulations to our dedicated maintenance teams, whose ‘continuous improvement’ mindset and digital maintenance solutions are breaking new ground in fleet performance.”

Lumo was named Green Innovation Business of the Year at the North East Chamber of Commerce Business Awards and more recently secured the Best Business at Reducing Carbon Emissions award at the Institute of Supply Chain Management Awards.