Eurostar said its passenger numbers increased by more than a fifth last year.

The rail operator said it carried 18.6 million passengers in 2023.

That’s a rise of 22% on the previous 12 months and is a return to levels last seen in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic.

Eurostar operates direct and indirect routes between the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

The year-on-year increases on Eurostar’s three main routes serving London St Pancras were Amsterdam (up 38%), Brussels (up 33%) and Paris (up 25%).

Eurostar chief executive Gwendoline Cazenave said: “Eurostar is growing and in 2023 we welcomed many more customers on board across our five countries.

“Our goal is to encourage more people to take the train so it’s a win for customers and a win for the planet.

“We have a bold vision to reach 30 million passengers by 2030, and growth in 2023 of 22% versus 2022 shows we are strongly on our way.

“We carried almost eight million passengers between London and France, 1.1 million between the Netherlands and the UK, and 2.2 million to Belgium.”

Eurostar expects to carry nearly two million passengers to Paris during this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games.