Steaming Eurostar hails age of the train

In the first three months of 2008, the London-to-Paris and Brussels rail service carried a record 2.17 million passengers as it enjoyed the fruits of its move from Waterloo to a dedicated state-of-the-art terminal at St Pancras.

While publicity surrounding its new home, an early Easter, an extra trading day because of the leap year and easier connections for passengers from the north all helped trading, executives claimed a new era of travellers snubbing air travel in favour of the railways is at the heart of the surge in traffic.

"People have fallen out of love with flying because of the all the hassle at the airports that goes with it," said Eurostar commercial director Nick Mercer.

"Rail travel appears to have become fashionable again. It is romantic, there is more excitement, it is more timely.

"But increasingly passengers are looking at the environmental impact as well.

"Our surveys of passengers say that more than a third - 37% - believe that within a few years environmental concerns will have made short-haul flying socially unacceptable."

Eurostar believes between 3% and 5% of its 21% surge in passenger numbers is down to business customers following a deliberate plan of taking the train to Europe's nearest capitals rather than the plane on the back of inceasingly environmentally-driven, centrally-purchased corporate travel policies.

Eurostar also pointed to first-quarter punctuality figures of 93.6%. That compares to the airlines where one-in-three aircraft to Paris and Brussels from London arrives late.

The surge in customer numbers would appear to put Eurostar on track to hit its "10 by 10" target of carrying 10 million passengers a year by 2010.

The company said it is not currently seeing any hurt from the economic slowdown and that the weakening of the pound against the euro cuts both ways.

"Traditionally, economic slowdowns have led to a drop in leisure travel but we are not seeing that yet," said Mercer. "As for the rising euro, that balances out. In the past, the Achilles heel of trying to attract customers to London was that London was seen as expensive.

"That has changed and a good job has been done in attracting custom from Paris and Brussels."