By Chris Bradley
Eurostar, the high speed rail service, has reported continued growth in passenger numbers and sales revenues. They saw sales revenue grow from £197 million to £221 million in the first quarter of this year which represents a rise of 7%. They also saw an increase in passenger numbers from 2.15 million to 2.24 million. Rises were based on the same period of time last year.
The growth has been mainly because of increase in leisure use. Business travel was found to have remained pretty much the same between the two periods. The chief executive of Eurostar, Nicolas Petrovic, explained that the start to the year was strong with passenger numbers and sales revenues increasing. He explained that their core destinations tend to remain popular but the Amsterdam fares were also proving to be popular because people wanted to try out new destinations by rail.
He went on to say that they are expecting to be busy in the summer as the UK prepares for the Jubilee celebrations and the London 2012 Olympic Games. He confirmed that the June bank holiday weekend already looks strong with regards to the amounts of bookings as it seems thousands of people plan to travel to London to celebrate the Jubilee. In fact all of the UK is gearing up for a summer of celebrations and the transportation services are expecting things to be really busy as well as the leisure industry. It is expected that many people will visit the UK, but there will also be people leaving the country to get away from the crowds.
