Eurostar offered British Airways passengers the chance to travel to Paris, Brussels or Lille for just £30 return in standard class or £80 return in first class. The offer ran for six days from Thursday 24 July 2003.

Passengers had to show their unused BA tickets at the ticket desks at Waterloo or Ashford International and were issued with the special Eurostar tickets.

The former BA passengers were then be able to sample the unique benefits of Eurostar's high-speed city-centre to city-centre service.

Eurostar communications director Paul Charles said: There was an enormous amount of uncertainty about the situation for people travelling from Heathrow. Bearing in mind the current position, we believe that many BA passengers would rather travel with Eurostar and be certain that they will reach their destination in good time.

Even if Paris, Brussels or Lille were not their final destination, BA passengers could still take advantage of the Eurostar offer to connect in Paris, Brussels or Lille with flights to other Continental airports, or to continue their journey via a high-speed Continental rail service.

There was further good news for Eurostar when it broke the British rail speed record today on the new high-speed line.

Although the offer was limited, Railfuture believes that there is great scope for cheaper Eurostar fares if the Channel Tunnel rail link is to fulfill its potential and give a proper return on the vast amounts of public cash that has been injected into it.

Source: Eurostarand rail at london.com