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As the Obama Administration works to advance high-speed rail development throughout the country, more U.S. citizens are beginning to try out fast rail service overseas, recent ridership figures from Eurostar suggest.

In 2010, the number of U.S. passengers that used Eurostar’s high-speed rail service between the United Kingdom and mainland Europe shot up 14 percent compared with 2009 figures, as 310,000 U.S. travelers rode the system. Total Eurostar ridership rose 3 percent year over year to 9.5 million.  

“With the U.S. representing our biggest international market, it is great to see that more and more of our American customers, while flying into either London or Paris, are then choosing to continue their tour of Europe by Eurostar and other high-speed connecting trains,” said Eurostar Head of International Sales Darren Williams in a prepared statement.

In September 2010, Eurostar launched a new corporate structure, under which the three railways that partnered to provide the service — France’s SNCF, London’s LCR and Belgium’s SNCB — transitioned into a single corporate entity.

Also last fall, the agency announced it will invest more than $1 billion to overhaul and redesign its existing fleet, as well as purchase 10 new trains.