Eurostar has already acted on a number of the communication recommendations from the independent review published 12th February, which had been carried out following travel chaos last December when five trains broke down.

One of the charges levelled against Eurostar was that the communication from the company to its passengers and relatives of those stuck on the trains was inadequate. The report recommended that Eurostar “should also consider new forms of communication, such as Twitter and Facebook, to keep passengers updated”. In fact, these forms of communication were already used by Eurostar. However, as was noted in Communicate magazine’s February cover story, the company’s Facebook page and Twitter account were managed by the marketing department rather than anyone with a corporate or crisis communication remit.

However, the day before the publication was launched Eurostar launched a new twitter account, @eurostarcomms with its first post coming just over 24 hours before the review was published. “Welcome to @eurostarcomms. Here you’ll find important service updates and corporate announcements about #Eurostar” said its first post at 08:39.

Eurostar is already making full use of the new account. Through it, the company has been able to communicate with its customers and other stakeholders following this morning’s tragic rail accident in Belgium. The accident, though not directly affecting Eurostar trains, has caused considerable delays on the service. In the two hours after the crash, Eurostar had submitted eight postings on Twitter, including a link through to its website for service updates.