Eurostar traffic returned to pre-Covid levels with a 22% rise in passenger numbers in 2023, the cross-Channel train operator has announced. Eurostar also said it had found a partial solution to allow it to maintain a limited service to the Netherlands during work at Amsterdam station, which had threatened to halt the popular route in 2024. Booming demand from London drove growth of 25% for journeys to Paris and more than a third on Eurostar routes to Brussels and Amsterdam, as total passenger numbers reached 18.9 million. Eurostar, which merged with Franco-Belgian high-speed operator Thalys in 2022, said it was “strongly on [its] way” to reach a stated target of 30 million passengers by 2030. Gwendoline Cazenave, the chief executive of Eurostar, said the company “achieved exceptionally strong growth in 2023. We carried almost 8 million passengers between London and France, 1.1 million between the Netherlands and the UK and 2.2 million to Belgium. “Our goal is to encourage more people to take the train so it’s a win for customers and a win for the planet.” Its terminal at Amsterdam Centraal is due to close for six months from June but Eurostar will continue to run three direct trains from London, although only with slower services connecting at Brussels on the way back. Passenger numbers from the city have been severely limited due to UK border requirements and lack of space, which has worsened since Brexit, but Eurostar hopes for a big capacity increase when work is finished. Cazenave said Amsterdam was a “key hub”, adding: “The construction of a new terminal is vital for passengers, who will be able to increase their numbers significantly when it opens.” Eurostar services will be particularly in demand this summer when it expects to carry close to 2 million passengers to Paris for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The growth in passengers underlines Eurostar’s recovery since the pandemic, when travel restrictions saw it teeter on the edge of bankruptcy with only one train running each day. However, it has yet to reopen a number of stations, including Ashford and Ebbsfleet in Kent, and its network of direct routes remains limited. It may also face competition for the first time across the Channel, with the tunnel operator Getlink indicating that it has been in talks with a number of startups that wish to run high-speed trains.