As Heathrow row escalates, high-speed rail enjoys bumper year

As the row over plans for a third runway at Heathrow continues to escalate, fresh evidence has emerged that high-speed rail links are becoming an increasingly popular alternative to short-haul flights across Europe.

Eurostar has today released new figures revealing that it enjoyed record ticket sales last year, with traveller numbers rising more than 10 per cent and breaking the nine million mark for the first time in the operator's history.

The results come just a day after the Spanish rail network reported that passenger numbers on its expanding network of high-speed rail links soared last year, contributing to a 20 per cent drop in passengers using domestic flights.

Eurostar said that the increase in passenger numbers was largely down to the opening of the new High Speed 1 link and St Pancras rail terminal, which cut journey times to Paris to just two hours and 15 minutes. It added that the number of travellers would have been higher still were it not for a fire in the Channel Tunnel in September that led to weeks of disruption and it operating a reduced timetable.

Eurostar chief executive Richard Brown said that environmental considerations were one of the factors helping to drive increased demand for the company’s service.

"An increase of nearly a million extra passengers using High Speed 1 during its first year of operations, even with the impact of the tunnel fire, demonstrates beyond doubt that people prefer high-speed rail to short-haul air, " he said. "They are switching because rail journeys are faster, more punctual, more convenient, and have less environmental impact."

He added that while the economic recession would result in a "challenging" market for the company over the coming months, the short-term outlook for both Eurostar and other high-speed rail operators across Europe remained hugely encouraging.

"High Speed 1 is fully connected to Europe's fast-expanding high-speed network and we expect to see continuing growth in the number of travellers making longer connecting journeys from towns and cities across the UK to Belgium and France, as well as to destinations in the Netherlands and Germany," he said.

Brown's prediction was reinforced by new figures from Spain where it was announced that the number of passengers using high-speed rail soared 28 per cent during 2008, boosted by the opening of a new line between Madrid and Barcelona. The increased use of rail has seen aviation's share of the country's domestic long-distance travel market fall from 72 per cent to just 60 per cent in one year, and experts are predicting that with prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero committed to further expansion of the rail network, the trend is set to continue.

The results came as the row over whether or not to grant approval for a third runway at Heathrow took yet another twist after reports emerged that the final decision could be delayed again.

A ruling had been expected on Thursday, but according to a number of reports it could be postponed again as several cabinet ministers push the prime minister for stronger assurances that a third runway would not lead to breaches of air and noise pollution standards.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace yesterday pulled off an audacious move in its attempts to block the third runway, buying up a one-acre parcel of land on the proposed site that it proposes to sell to to thousands of climate change campaigners.

A number of politicians, scientists and celebrities, including the actress Emma Thompson, have already taken ownership of packages of land and have pledged to resist any legal moves designed to make them relinquish the deeds.

If, as expected, the third runway is granted approval, the government will be able to issue compulsory purchase orders for the land. But legal experts said last night that the process was likely to prove extremely costly and time consuming, while any legal challenge would give the protestors a high-profile platform from which to argue their case against expansion.