Posted 5th August 2008 | 6 Comments
Midlands cities drive big rise in Eurostar travel
Demand for Eurostar travel has boomed following the opening of St Pancras International last year. Above: Eurostar’s chief executive Richard Brown.
EUROSTAR is meeting surging demand by adding an 18th train service between London and Paris on Mondays to Thursdays from next month to complement its already boosted Friday services.
The company is seeing growth in passenger numbers of 100 per cent plus in some regions north of London as travellers take advantage of good value through-fares and easy domestic connections to St Pancras International.
The extra trains will provide a half-hourly service between London and Paris during morning and evening peaks, and close to an hourly service throughout the rest of the day, with 24,000 seats available Monday to Thursday and 30,000 on Fridays.
The company has experienced surging demand during the first six months of the year, with ticket sales up 25 per cent and traveller numbers up 18 per cent, driven by demand from the UP regions and the rising cost of flying.
Growth in traveller numbers – an 18.3 per cent year-on-year increase to 4.63 million – was greatest in towns and cities to the north of London which enjoy easy access to St Pancras International.
Those seeing the strongest growth include Derby, up 190 per cent, Nottingham, up 131 per cent, and Sheffield and York with increases of 128 and 127 per cent respectively.
With high-speed rail fares unaffected by the rising oil prices that have forced up airline ticket costs, more and more travellers are choosing Eurostar for carbon neutral journeys to the continent. Ticket sales between January and June totalled £368.8 million – an increase of 24.7 per cent against the same period last year.
Also during this period, punctuality levels were maintained, with 92.6 per cent of trains arriving on time or early compared to just 62.3 per cent for airlines between January and April, the latest available figure. Customer demand at the new Ebbsfleet station is fully meeting expectations and is continuing at Ashford International.
Eurostar chief executive Richard Brown said: “This growth clearly demonstrates that our move to St Pancras International has opened up high-speed rail services to millions more people across the UK.
“The effect of rising oil prices on air fares, combined with growing awareness of the much greater environmental impact of flying, is causing more and more travellers to switch from plane to train.”
Reader Comments:
Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.
Rich, Calais, France
Re Colin, Notts
There are shorter, "NoL" Eurostar trains that run a shuttle service between Lille and Paris. These were actually built to work on the shorter platforms North of London. As for a few years ago, I believe that Eurostar still held slots on the main lines to the North, such that there were phantom Eurostars running up and down the country (possibly contributing to the congestion that you talk of) - whether this is still the case I don't know.
H. Harvey, Birmingham
Extension of Eurostar services North of London should be top priority.
The trains were built for this and the Channel Tunnel service only got thru parliament because these services were part of the deal.
One way would be for a deal done between Government, Eurostar and Virgin (or its successor) for one or two services per day to the North of London.
Most importantly these sevices should be allowed to pick up and drop down North of London.
Hubert, Warsaw, Poland
I think Eurostar should firstly consider direct connenction from London to Antwerpen/Roterdam/Amsterdam and to Koln/Frankfurt.
Benjy, Borehamwood, UK
The trains are definately available!
When the Eurostar trains were built, they built 'north of London' units which were built for regional services. Those trains were used by GNER in the early 00's during their mallard project and I believe are still fully maintained for passenger use. SNCF lease a few of these trains.
I think it should be given some serious thought again. The slots are available for Eurostar to run services on both the East and West coast lines.
Colin, Notts, GB
Yes, it would make sense to run trains from say, Birmingham to Paris, but Rich is wrong on two counts, there are no available trains, I'm not certain that any were built, but if they were, they are now fully occupied on the existing Eurostar diagrams, and the slots in the timetable don't exist either. The west coast main line is full and the Midland line to Notts, derby & Sheffield is almost at capacity. I'm afraid that we wont see throgh trains from the midlands to Europe until our second high speed line is built, whenever that may be.
Rich, Calais, France
Why don't Eurostar run some services directly from the North of London then? The trains exist, the slots in the timetable are there, and the link between the lines and HS1 are there too? It would make perfect sense!