As number of business class travellers falls, train operator pins hopes on visitors from Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands

The cross-channel high-speed train company Eurostar today reported a 6% dip in passengers in the first part of this year.

The company carried 4.34 million passengers in the first three months of 2009, down from 4.63 million in January to March 2008.

Leisure passenger ticket sales rose 4% but a dip in business class travellers led to an overall fall of 7% to £342.2m in ticket sales for the first three months of this year.

The Eurostar chief executive, Richard Brown, said: “As with all businesses in the transport sector, we have long acknowledged that we would face challenging times this year. Also, for the first seven weeks of this year we operated a reduced service as a direct result of a fire on a shuttle in the Channel tunnel in September 2008.

“The fact is that some of our biggest business clients are from the financial and banking sectors. As they tighten their travel budgets, we, like the airlines, feel the effects. We continue to seek ways to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

“Despite market conditions, we still have good reason to be optimistic. We are benefiting from the strong euro and seeing substantial increases in travellers from Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands, which is also helping the UK economy.

“In addition, there is growing evidence of travellers switching from plane to high-speed train for longer, connecting journeys.”