A record number of passengers travelled by Eurostar last month.

The High Speed 1 train operator said that numbers rose by 16.8 per cent to a record 923,000 in July.

Eurostar’s head of communications Simon Montague said: "We are delighted to break another Eurostar record by carrying an all-time monthly high of passengers. Eurostar is now attracting new travellers from across the UK and also crucially persuading even habitual flyers to switch from plane to train for their holidays and business trips."

The news came a day after the company announced it was reinstating a Brussels service that stops at Ashford.

Eurostar said it had been able to ressurrect the direct service to Brussels because the 30 per cent increase in passengers was significantly more than it had expected. Mr Montague said the decision was made because of "fast-growing demand."

Eurostar came under fire for slashing Ashford services to Paris, axing all its services to Brussels, and making Ebbsfleet the premier international station in Kent.

Council and business chiefs fought a long battle to have some services restored and won a partial victory with the announcement that a Brussels service from Ashford would be restored from December.

Passenger numbers on the London-Brussels route have increased by 30 per cent since the launch of Eurostar services on High Speed 1 in November 2007.

The new daily direct service will begin in December when the new international rail timetable changes.

From December, Ashford International will offer three services a day to Paris, a direct and a connecting service to Brussels, a daily train to Disneyland Resort Paris, and seasonal weekly services to the French Alps and Avignon. Ebbsfleet International offers seven trains a day to Paris and five a day to Brussels.