Eurostar have announce their latest travel figures for the period in between July and August this year and have stated that a record number of cars used the service during the summer. Over half a million cars travelled on passenger shuttles running in between Folkestone and Calais an increase of 17% over the previous year and the highest figure seen since the Tunnel opened in 1994.

The increase is partially being put down to the knock-on effect of the volcanic ash cloud as air passengers found alternative means to get back to their respective homelands. In fact some of our own staff had to take advantage of the Channel Tunnel themselves as they returned from a trip to the Sixt Rent a Car head office in Munich. The trip took 19 hours and made several stops including a car swap at our Heathrow Airport car hire branch and eventually finishing at our UK headquarters in Chesterfield, you can read about it in our blog post titled “Munich to Chesterfield by Road”.

Several landmarks for the Eurotunnel happened throughout July and August with the 250 millionth passenger travelling on the Eurostar in July and the record for the amount of traffic in one day being set on August 14.

The figures make welcome reading for the Eurotunnel operator who had several of their Eurostar trains breaking down during the exceedingly harsh conditions we faced during December.

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