The number of passengers travelling on Channel Tunnel high-speed Eurostar trains rose more than 10 per cent to a record high last year. The increase came despite a serious fire on board a Eurotunnel freight shuttle train in the tunnel last September - an incident that badly disrupted services. The knock-on effect of the fire means that a full Eurostar service is still not running through the tunnel, but Eurostar chief executive Richard Brown said today that a full timetable should be in operation by early spring. Eurostar, which runs trains from St Pancras in London to Paris and Brussels, carried 9.1 million passengers last year - 10.3 per cent more than in 2007. Ticket sales in 2008 rose 10.9 per cent to £664 million and 92.4 per cent of trains ran on time or early during 2008. Last year was the first full year of operation of High Speed 1 - the fast rail link running from London to the tunnel's opening at Folkestone in Kent.
The increase came despite a serious fire on board a Eurotunnel freight shuttle train in the tunnel last September - an incident that badly disrupted services.
The knock-on effect of the fire means that a full Eurostar service is still not running through the tunnel, but Eurostar chief executive Richard Brown said today that a full timetable should be in operation by early spring.
Eurostar, which runs trains from St Pancras in London to Paris and Brussels, carried 9.1 million passengers last year - 10.3 per cent more than in 2007.
Ticket sales in 2008 rose 10.9 per cent to £664 million and 92.4 per cent of trains ran on time or early during 2008.
Last year was the first full year of operation of High Speed 1 - the fast rail link running from London to the tunnel's opening at Folkestone in Kent.
