Half-year financial results due later this month will show a doubling of passenger numbers from some regions north of London since the high speed line from St Pancras to the continent opened last November and services moved from London Waterloo.
The Channel Tunnel train operator is putting on extra services following a rise in sales from passengers using the domestic network from as far away as northern England to connect at St Pancras. It claims journey times of, for example, three hours 40 minutes from Peterborough to Paris and three hours 20 minutes from Luton to Brussels.
However, Eurostar admits the bulk of the new passengers are likely to be leisure travellers. Currently, 35% of Eurostar passengers are travelling on business. A Eurostar spokeswoman commented: "We've learned from our colleagues at SNCF that three to three and a half hours is the duration a business traveller will go by high speed train.
”After four hours they want to fly, but passenger profiles are changing as people want to move to greener forms of travel, so there are exceptions."
Previous attempts to attract customers north of the Thames by running dedicated Eurostar trains from places like Leeds failed miserably when many ran totally empty, but the operator said it was seeing growth ”of more than 100% in some regions north of London.”
Eurostar also believes that St Pancras”s ”wow factor” is contributing to the increased passenger numbers as the restored station, its restaurants, bars and shops are an attraction in itself.
An additional frequency between London and Paris will run Monday to Thursday from September 8, making 18 trains a day on the route. The extra departure means there will be a half-hourly service during the morning and evening peaks, with ”close to” an hourly service throughout the rest of the day.
Eurostar is also increasing weekend services from next week, with up to 20 trains on Fridays from London to Paris.
Expansion of services means Eurostar now offers 24,000 seats between London and Paris on Monday to Thursday, with 30,000 on Fridays.
However, the opening of the new line and the station at Ebbsfleet, near Dartford, has meant a downgrading of the Ashford International station - it now has just three services each day to Paris.
Gary Noakes