Eurostar strikes back

The Eurostar train was certainly a magnificent thing when it first began its journeys under the English Channel connecting London and Paris. These days, with the proliferation of budget airlines offering super cheap fares around the UK and the continent, the old Chunnel was suffering and even faced bankruptcy.

One move that seems to have paid off in the quest to keep the Eurostar running was to move its base in London from Waterloo to St. Pancras Station, cutting times by passing some congested areas of London.

Tickets sales for the train have jumped 20 percent since the move, making 2007 a record ear for the number of passengers making the voyage. 2007 saw a 5 percent increase in overall passenger traffic, with a total count of 8.26 million passengers.

Eurostar chief executive Richard Brown said he expected to see this growth continue through 2008, banking on the trend that saw an 11percent increase in the November/December period of 2007 compared to 2006; marking the move to St. Pancras as a complete success.

www.eurostar.com