UK regions flock to Eurostar

[Metroland]

High speed rail service Eurostar reported "huge growth" in passengers from the UK regions in the year since it moved to its new headquarters at S. Pancras International.

The train operator said traveller numbers from point north of London have risen by 150% since last November.

The company, which runs services to Brussels and Paris, offers through tickets from 130 British towns and cities.

It said traffic from the East Midlands had risen by 100%, from the North East by 103%, from the West Midlands by 53%, from the Manchester area by 54%, from Scotland by 54% and from South Yorkshire by 118%.

Richard Brown, Eurostar's ceo, said: "We're delighted to see this growth, which is strong evidence that high speed rail can provide a new alternative for short-haul journeys within the UK and for travel to mainland Europe."

http://www.abtn.co.uk/news/uk-regions-flock-eurostar

 

[Spaceflower]

There doesn't seem to be a mention of Wales and the South West?

I assume these tickets include LU transfers?

I wonder if it would be worthwhile investigating the plausibility of designated international trains running from lucrative regions direct to St Pancras which would avoid the potentially discouraging LU transfers at present?

 

[Mojo]

There doesn't seem to be a mention of Wales and the South West?

It could be that tickets on First Great Western longer distance services were introduced at a later date.

 

[andersley]

Good news, and is definitely more likely to get me to sample Eurostar. (I live in the east midlands).

 

[Techniquest]

Well worth making the effort if you ask me, I absolutely loved it when I did a return trip from Waterloo International to Marne la Vallee Chessy back in July 2006.

So much so I had a temporary high for a few weeks afterwards that resulted in my rather disliking HSTs during that time. Wasn't helped by the rather annoying amount of delay in rather hot weather caused by 43029 failing on my HST out of London coming home mind...

But I do still like 373s. Bleedin' monsterous things which I'd travel on far more regularly if I could a) find my passport and b) if it wasn't so expensive!

 

[class 313]

There doesn't seem to be a mention of Wales and the South West?

I assume these tickets include LU transfers?

I wonder if it would be worthwhile investigating the plausibility of designated international trains running from lucrative regions direct to St Pancras which would avoid the potentially discouraging LU transfers at present?

The move to St Pancras is easier for places North of London. So Why would places in the South West flock to the new Station when Waterloo would of been easier for them?

 

[Mojo]

The move to St Pancras is easier for places North of London. So Why would places in the South West flock to the new Station when Waterloo would of been easier for them?

The only major places in the South West which has the main operation into Waterloo is South East Dorset (Bournemouth/Poole), Weymouth and Salisbury. Other areas might have a secondary route (Bristol, Exeter, etc.) but the majority of passengers probably travel into Paddington.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_West_England

 

[class 313]

The only major places in the South West which has the main operation into Waterloo is South East Dorset (Bournemouth/Poole), Weymouth and Salisbury. Other areas might have a secondary route (Bristol, Exeter, etc.) but the majority of passengers probably travel into Paddington.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_West_England

Still, a change at Reading would of seen them into Waterloo, and close to the Eurostar platforms.

 

[paul1609]

I think that Eurostars getting a bit carried away with the spin.
A 13.9 % increase in passenger numbers overall is a pretty poor showing after an investment of £5.2 billion. These huge percentages increases of people travelling from the regions within the overall increase of 13.9 seem to suggest either:
a) that the regional market remains pretty negligible within the passenger base and was virtually non existant before
b) that the move to St Pancras has lost them a large percentage of their existing client base!

 

[Metroland]

£60 billion? I'd knock at least a zero off that. And no they didn't lose hardly any passengers on the move from the traditional base.

 

[paul1609]

£60 billion? I'd knock at least a zero off that. And no they didn't lose hardly any passengers on the move from the traditional base.

Yes quite correct I've edited my earlier post. However a 13.9 % increase is still not very good.
I dont have any figures to suggest that Eurostar have lost any existing passengers but given that figures were increasing by 8-9 % per annum before section 2 of HS1 opened it seems to suggest that the nett effect of section 2 is around a 4% increase in passengers. if this is all through rail passengers from the regions and they have increased by the figures mentioned the market is still very small and must have been next to non existant before St. Pancras.
It will be interesting to see what happens next year when the novelty has worn off and recession starts to bite. i understand that several of the ex NSE TOCs are beginning to see ticket sales drop by around 7 to 9% it will be interesting to see who needs propping up first. My monies on SWT!

 

[Metroland]

Well its quite correct to say if the number of passengers that was travelling from Derby was 100 per year, and that goes up to 200 (100% growth), then its not all that impressive. Fictional figures, just to demonstrate the point.

I read, somewhere, I can't recall where, that they lost around 3-5% of passengers that were using Waterloo, but picked up more at St Pancras anyway. ending up in a net growth, the latest being

-- Channel Tunnel rail operator Eurostar has reported a 25.2% rise in sales for the first three months of 2008. The high-speed passenger train service, linking Britain to mainland Europe, said sales rose to £178.4m ($352.4m), as passenger numbers increased by 21%.

The last quarter is

--Traveller numbers up 6.4% to 2.37 million
--Ticket sales rise 2.4% to £152.3 million
--Amended timetable following Channel Tunnel incident provides 93% of normal capacity
--First nine months of 2008 see 13.9% rise in travellers and 17.2% increase in ticket sales

As for the rest of the TOCs, I have read there is some softening of demand and some passengers are looking for cheap deals more. But no drops in sales as such, except to airports: I am carefully watching, as central London employment is bound to have some effect:

- Stagecoach saw 9% rise in revenue

- first group: Strong passenger revenue growth up 9.8% and volumes up 5.9%

- go-ahead said ' We believe that quality of service is one of the causal factors behind the sustained growth in passenger numbers for the year, which amounted to 6.7% in Southern and 6.4% in Southeastern. This led to an increase in passenger revenue of 13.2% in Southern and 13.0% in Southeastern for the year, totalling £97.5m'

- National express: 'NATIONAL Express reported "strong" business growth today as people chose public transport over cars in a bid to beat the economic slowdown. The company's East Coast train service saw like-for-like revenues growth of 11 per cent and the figure for National Express East Anglia was up 6 per cent - resulting in a 9 per cent rise across the rail portfolio for the first nine months of the financial year.

They are the latest official figures.

If there are any drops, from official figures, I'll post it up the the site.

 

[CosherB]

I wonder if it would be worthwhile investigating the plausibility of designated international trains running from lucrative regions direct to St Pancras which would avoid the potentially discouraging LU transfers at present?

Or how about Eurostars running north of St Pancras. Maybe with a depot just outside Manchester Piccadilly. And Eurostar sleeprs from Scotland.... Oh, hang on... :roll::roll::roll: