Eurostar grabs more passengers from the airlines

Eurostar released their latest passenger figures yesterday, showing fantastic results.

Eurostar trains carried 2.17 million people between January and March this year, a 21.3% increase on the same period in 2007.

One of the undoubtable factors of this success was the switch between Waterloo station and St Pancras International. The new St Pancras station opened its doors to Eurostar passengers in mid-November last year, and saw passenger numbers increase in the first 2 months.

With journey times between London and the continent, regular flight commuters are turning towards the greener, more convenient Eurostar option. An early Easter, the Six Nations tournament and the introduction of through fares from 68 towns and cities across Britain has helped Eurostar ticket sales rise by more than 25% to £178.4 million.

Eurostar also reported fantastic punctuality figures. A record of 93.6% of Eurostar trains arrived on time, or less than 15 minutes late.

Good work guys!

St. Pancras International Gets Festive

I finally had time to look around the new St Pancras International station on Saturday afternoon. I've been to London so many times over the last month, and finally had a couple of hours to spare, so thought I'd get some good pics of the festivities!

St. Pancras has a packed schedule of events running all the way through December, the theme of which centres around the Victorian history of the station.

As soon as I entered the station I could tell immediately it had been well received by the public - for Eurostar travellers and general tourists alike.

It was nice to be greeted by pick feather bower wearing choir, who entertained the crowds for most of the afternoon.













I also had to have a good look at Europe's longest champagne bar too, although I resisted the temptation to taste a tipple. I have posted a couple of photos of the bar at one of my previous posts about the champagne bar.













There was also a couple of Victorian characters to entertain the tourists, with one particularly talented Victorian footballer...






















All in all, a great place to go and visit when you're in London, regardless of whether you are about to buy a Eurostar ticket and head for Europe or not.