France/UK - Channel tunnel

Eurostar stops till Sunday, hundreds stuck in tunnel

Article published on the 2009-12-19 Latest update 2009-12-19 14:14 TU

Crowds at Paris's Gare du Nord as Eurostar suspends its service
(Photo: Daniel Finnan)

The Eurostar rail link between Paris and London has been suspended until Sunday after five trains were stuck in the tunnel under the English Channel overnight.

Eurostar officials say that two-thirds of the 2,000 passengers who blocked inside the tunnel on Friday night arrived in London Saturday morning.

As heavy snow and freezing temperatures hit Europe, five Eurostar trains broke down between 20h30 and 23h30.

The trains failed as they moved from the freezing air of northern France into the warmer temperatures of the tunnel on Friday evening, Eurostar said.

Services were suspended Saturday because of the weather.

"In 15 years we've never faced such a situation," top company official Nicolas Petrovic told the AFP news agency.

Hundreds of people with tickets to London crowded into Paris's Gare du Nord station. Many of them were angry that the rail network cannot deal with cold weather conditions which occur every year.

“If they can get it sorted out – if we can get onto a train tomorrow, then its c’est la vie – you know, these things happen,” British tourist William told RFI. “If it’s going to be Monday its going to be quite an inconvenience, and obviously we need to get somewhere to stay tonight. If it has to shut, it has to shut, but we could do with a bit more information really.”

Hannah, from York in north England, was less fatalistic.

“I’ve been here for about two and a half hours now, in the freezing cold, I’m just trying to go home for Christmas. It’s a no-go!” she said.  It’s absolutely rubbish, and the fact that there’s absolutely no information, that the traffic controller, staff, can give us is just out of order, really.”

Eurostar's British train drivers and staff coincidentally began a 48-hour strike on Friday.

More snow is forecast in France on Saturday night, moving into the Rhone-Alps region in the south of the country. Holiday traffic was reported to be moving on the nation's roads.