Eurostar blames Brexit as it is forced to cut services to Paris and Brussels

Eurostar services to Paris and Brussels will be the latest victim of Brexit uncertainty as the cross-Channel rail operator said it is facing a “challenging environment”.

It will not become clear which services will disappear from the schedule until a new international timetable is released to come into effect in December, but one in 12 is expected to be axed. At least 80 jobs will go, too.

Two daily trains to the French capital, out of a usual 21, and one to the Belgian capital, out of 10 daily, are likely to be cancelled.

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Eurostar earlier this year said that the vote to leave the EU had contributed to a “challenging” second quarter of 2016, with passengers numbers falling 3 per cent on the same period in 2015. The operator’s CEO Nicolas Petrovic said at the time it was due to a “slowdown in business travel” thanks to “uncertainty following the vote to leave, combined with the Brussels terrorist attack”.

A spokesperson for Eurostar said: “This is a challenging environment for all travel companies and we need to manage our costs carefully. That’s why we are looking at the size and shape of our business.

“We are committed to minimising the impact of these changes on our colleagues and our current focus is on managing any reductions through voluntary redundancies and sabbaticals as much as possible.”

A reduction in the number of daily services to the Continent will not necessarily mean fewer seats as Eurostar’s new e320 trains, introduced this year and now covering the majority of the route to Paris, have 20 per cent more capacity than the previous fleet.

Eurostar carries about 80 per cent of the cross-Channel traffic, with the Channel Tunnel and ferry services making up the difference.