Eurostar achieves record passenger and sales figures

During 2008, Eurostar saw its ticket sales increase by 10.9 per cent and passenger numbers grow by 10.3 per cent, despite the impact on its services by a major fire in the Channel tunnel.

For the first full year of High Speed 1’s operation, the rail company reached record ticket sales of £664 million and exceeded the nine million mark in passenger numbers, carrying 9.1 travellers for the year.

Eurostar officials noted that the results would have been even stronger had a fire in the Channel tunnel not shut down service last September.

In fact, passengers are still experiencing disruptions and longer journey times as repairs to the tunnel continue.

The economic downturn has apparently had little impact on sales for the year overall.

Eurostar chief executive Richard Brown commented about the future: “The short-term outlook for 2009 is challenging, but the long-term prospects for Eurostar and high-speed rail are very good.”

Brown added: “High Speed 1 is fully connected into Europe’s fast expanding high-speed network and we expect to see continuing growth in the number of travellers making longer connecting journeys from towns and cities across the UK to Belgium and France, as well as to destinations in the Netherlands and Germany.”

Thanks to www.travelmole.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.eurostar.com