by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Eurostar, the high-speed internatonal rail operator between London, Kent and mainland Europe, boosted revenue and passenger numbers last year despite severe disruption to its services in the run-up to Christmas.

Ticket sales for 2009 rose by 1.7 per cent to a record £675.5million, while passenger numbers edged up 1.2 per cent to 9.2million.

The Brussels route, which had its Ashford stop restored after a fierce countywide campaign, saw the highest growth, with a six per cent rise in passenger numbers. The Paris route saw a one per cent increase.

While the economic downturn dented business travel, many passengers used Eurostar for leisure, with ticket sales up strongly by 15.6 per cent.

Eurostar reported that while the "economic environment remained challenging throughout the year", the business market bottomed out in the second half of 2009.

The annual figures would have been even better had it not been for the chaos triggered by extreme cold and snow conditions over the weekend of December 18 - 20.

Trains broke down inside the Channel Tunnel, trapping thousands for up to 18 hours. More than 100,000 passengers, many getting away for the Christmas holiday, had their travel plans thrown into disarray. Eurostar was roundly condemned for its handling of the situation and a lack of communications to frustrated passengers.

Eurostar has since apologised and made changes to its operations and communications "to ensure that its trains have greater resilience to extreme winter weather and is better placed to look after its customers when disruptions do occur".

Christopher Garnett, a former Kent resident, is jointly chairing an independent probe into what went wrong.

Earlier this week, Eurostar revealed it expected the compensation bill for passengers caught up in the pre-Christmas travel chaos is likely to top £10million.