High-speed rail operator Eurostar reported a 6 percent increase in business travel bookings during the first half of 2014 versus the prior-year period.

Total passenger numbers rose 2 percent to 5 million while sales revenue edged upward 0.5 percent (or 2 percent at constant currency) to £456 million (US$776 million). Following a second quarter that brought challenges to leisure demand in particular, "we are now beginning to see a more benign trading environment with encouraging signs of economic stability in France as well as the U.K.," according to a statement from Eurostar chief executive Nicolas Petrovic. "These more favorable conditions have helped deliver strong growth in business travel across our markets." He added that "the return to more normal levels of growth" for the company that links the United Kingdom to Continental Europe "reflects signs of greater stability in the Eurozone economies."