Eurostar claims to have saved more than 83,000 tonnes of CO2 with 1,6 million passengers using high speed rail travel between London and the Netherlands over five years.
The first train for Rotterdam and Amsterdam left St Pancras International in London in April 2018.
The service has since attracted the equivalent of more than 10,000 plane loads of passengers.
With a passenger’s carbon footprint from one flight between London and Amsterdam being the equivalent to seven Eurostar journeys, over 83,000 tonnes of CO2 has been saved by switching from air to rail, according to company calculations.
Eurostar added a fourth daily service last September as part of a commitment to grow connections and capacity on the route.
Its overall aim is to raise passenger numbers across all routes from 19 million in pre-pandemic 2019 to 30 million by the end of the decade.
Eurostar chief executive Gwendoline Cazenave said: “As we celebrate five years of high-speed rail connections between London and the Netherlands, we are proud to be the greener way to go.
“There are now up to 18 daily services between Amsterdam, London and Paris, which is testament to the ever-growing demand for seamless high-speed rail connections as a sustainable and convenient alternative to air travel.
“As Eurostar Group, we want to carry 30 million passengers a year on all of our routes by 2030, and the continued growth of our Dutch routes will play a huge role in helping us deliver on these ambitions.”
The number of travellers connecting at Brussels for journeys between the Netherlands and the UK has increased by 106% since 2018. A direct return service from Amsterdam and Rotterdam to London started operating in October 2020.
Eurostar Group, incorporating Eurostar and French-Belgian high speed train operator Thalys, recently revealed new branding to be introduced across 51 trains from the autumn.