EUROSTAR says that it is seeing large increases in travellers from Germany and The Netherlands. Traveller numbers from Dutch cities such as Amsterdam have increased by a third compared with last year, changing at Brussels. Eurostar says increases seem to be part of the continuing Europe-wide trend from plane to train for short haul journeys, reflecting the continuing expansion of the European high-speed rail network. The rail operator notes that overall time between London and Cologne is as little as 4hr40min, comparable with the door-to-door journey time by air, and with a new high-speed line between Belgium and Germany this is set to come down even further towards the end of 2009. www.eurostar.com
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