by Trevor Sturgess

More people have been travelling on high-speed trains to Europe in the past three months.

Ticket sales by Eurostar, which is celebrating its 15th year of operation, jumped 6.8 per cent in the three months to September compared to the same quarter a year ago when a fire in the Channel Tunnel disrupted operations.

Business travel, which was badly affected by the recession, has also picked up, although Eurostar says the market continues to be “challenging.”

Overall sales to date are slightly down on last year, with ticket sales between January and September netting £504.9 million. Eurostar carried 6.9m passengers in those nine months, down 0.9 per cent on the previous year. But passenger numbers in Q3 edged up to 2.6m from 2.4m in the same period a year ago.

There was an 11 per cent rise in passengers travelling from the UK and a seven per cent increase in passengers coming from the Continent.

Eurostar, which is set to face competition from rival operators from next year when the London-Paris and London-Brussels route is opened up, said the increase reflected the success of its “Little Break, Big Difference” advertising campaign.

This has encouraged UK travellers with a £59 return fare which has remained unchanged for six years.

Richard Brown, chief executive, said: “Today’s figures show that despite tough times, people are increasingly realising the great benefit of travelling with Eurostar.

“These individuals are part of what we call the Eurostar Generation, travellers who over the past decade and a half have experienced significant changes to the way they live, work and play as the network of high-speed rail services steadily grows.”

Brown also said that whilst the economic climate remains difficult there are signs that the worst might be over for the business market: “In recent weeks a number of our major corporate clients have eased their business travel restrictions. Although it is early days, this may be a sign of an upturn.”