A fire in the Channel Tunnel and the ongoing recession hit Eurostar’s business, with sales and passengers numbers both down on last year.

The train company, which runs services to Paris, Brussels, Marne-La-Vallee and Avignon from Ashford, announced that its sales are down 5.8 per cent in the first three months of 2009 - to £168.1m - and passengers down 11.5 per cent - to 1.92m - on the same time last year.

Overall, business sales were down around 20 per cent.

Eurotunnel said that it was significantly affected by the restrictions on Channel Tunnel capacity following the fire on a Eurotunnel shuttle train last September, and the consequent reduction in Eurostar services.

However, following the full opening of the tunnel on February 23, Eurostar was able to resume full promotional campaigning and has seen a consequent rise in leisure use.

Richard Brown, Chief Executive, Eurostar, said: “The downturn may be depressing business travel but it is having the opposite effect on the leisure market, with more people wanting to get away from it all to relax, recharge the batteries and spend time with loved ones.

“Like other businesses, we must reduce our costs to meet the new economic realities.

"We are also preparing for the challenges and opportunities of on-rail competition from January 2010. We are determined to continue growing our markets and we will be fully ready to compete head-on with any new competitor on our routes.”