Ash cloud's silver lining for Eurostar

TRAVELLERS switching from air to rail due to the ash cloud crisis helped swell numbers on Channel Tunnel Eurostar trains in the first half of this year, it emerged yesterday.

The high-speed rail company carried 4.6 million passengers between January and June - a 6 per cent increase on the first half of last year. Eurostar revenues for the first six months of 2010 rose 18 per cent to 404 million.

The company, which operates services between London and Paris and Brussels, also reported an increase in the number of Americans and Australians using their trains. Revenues from international sales last month were 24 per cent up on June 2009.

Eurostar also said it would run four extra trains to and from Paris on each of the five weekends in August this year.

Chief executive Nicolas Petrovic said: "Forward bookings are looking strong."