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Eurostar hopes to top 68% share on cross-channel route
Eurostar is celebrating a record Christmas and New Year period after carrying 250,000 passengers.
The record business over the festive period puts Eurostar’s annual total for passengers carried in 2004 at 7.27 million, bringing in sales of £433 million, up 15% on 2003.
Eurostar, which celebrated its tenth anniversary last year, competes hotly with full-service and no-frills airlines on its London-Paris and London-Brussels routes. The highest market share of the rail/air market that it has taken on these routes was 68% and 63% respectively in August this year, but a spokeswoman for the cross-channel train operator said the company was hoping to top that with the December rail/air market share figures, which will come out in a few weeks.
Eurostar ran 17 extra trains over the Christmas and New Year period for mostly leisure passengers, but its says a new strategy launched last year to attract business travellers helped to increase UK business sales by 18.5% year-on-year.
Eurostar director of communications Paul Charles said: “We are not seeing customers downgrade or switch to low-cost airlines – they are choosing to travel in high-speed comfort and style by train.”
The train operator plans to invest in improving its train interiors this year including introducing wireless internet, separating business and leisure travellers in first class, and relaunching catering in first class. In 2007 Eurostar will move from Waterloo to St. Pancras International, and will add stops in Stratford and near Dartford in Kent.
Report by Ginny McGrath
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