[size=75:310ll3w1]BBC news 19 December 2009

Thousands freed from Channel Tunnel after trains fail

More than 2,000 people spent hours trapped inside the Channel Tunnel after four Eurostar trains broke down due to cold weather.

The trains failed as they left the cold air in northern France and entered the warmer tunnel.

Some passengers were evacuated to car shuttle trains, while others remained on the stranded trains overnight.

Eurostar say the four trains have been moved from the tunnel and passengers are being transferred to England.

Meanwhile, more snow and freezing temperatures are expected for parts of Scotland and south-east and eastern England.

Heavy snowfall caused travel chaos, forced schools to close and cut off power supplies in parts of the UK on Friday.

Electrics failure

John Keefe from Eurotunnel, the operator of the Channel Tunnel, said the situation was "
absolutely extraordinary"
.

"
Four Eurostars broken down at one time - it's absolutely unprecedented,"
he said.

"
There's never actually been an evacuation of a Eurostar train in the 15 years that the tunnel has been opened and last night we evacuated two whole trains to get people off."


Eurostar services have been cancelled until noon and will be severely disrupted at the weekend. Passengers are being advised not travel unless their journey is essential.

Snow leads to further disruption

The four trains were coming from Brussels and Paris, and Eurostar said the change in the atmospheric conditions caused a problem with their electrics.

A spokeswoman said some passengers were already back in England. She said the company was "
extremely sorry"
for the delays and refunds would be available for all those affected. "
We will also be looking at compensation,"
she added.

Many people are at terminals at either end of the tunnel, waiting to make the crossing or to be transferred to other stations in England.

Lee Godfree, a passenger evacuated from one of the stranded trains, said he and his family had arrived in Folkestone at 0500 GMT, having left Disneyland Paris at 1837 GMT, "
Eventually a car train from Folkestone pulled up in the tunnel next to us. We evacuated ourselves off the train and on to the car train,"
Mr Godfree, from Stowmarket in Suffolk, said he was told there were 700 people on board the stranded train, where the "
heat was unbearable"
.

The car train took them to Calais before heading back to England and they then had to wait for a train to take them on to London.

Two of the stranded trains are being pushed to London St Pancras by diesel trains.
Passengers from a third were evacuated from the stricken train by Eurotunnel shuttle and later transferred to a Eurostar train bound for St Pancras.

People on the fourth train were taken by shuttle to the terminal in France.

The problems with the Eurostar services had a knock-on effect for car passengers hoping to use the tunnel.
Eurotunnel assisted with the removal of the trains from the tunnel and at first the car service service was suspended but it has since re-opened with "
significant delays"
.
James Brownell and his friends had a 12-hour wait at Folkestone. They were due to catch the 1800 shuttle on Friday night but only arrived in France at 0500 GMT.

The 27-year-old from Essex said they were left in their car in "
sub zero temperatures"
but they luckily had duvets and blankets to keep them warm, He said they were offered no food or water, and very little information,"
It was so frustrating, we did not have a clue what was going on,"
he said,there were babies in the car behind us. It has been a terrible 12 hours."


Hazardous roads

To add to passengers' difficulties, there is also congestion around Folkestone and Dover.

The Port of Calais is closed and passengers have been advised not to travel there. Anyone planning to make a journey is advised to contact their travel operator.

Following the closure, Kent Police warned drivers to stay away from the Folkestone and Dover areas of the M20 motorway, the force said the severe weather conditions were making driving hazardous in this area and there was no parking for drivers who are being turned away from the Channel Tunnel.

It has brought Operation Stack into effect - holding coast-bound heavy goods vehicles on the M20,It means more than 2,300 lorries can be parked on the motorway.

I can't begin to imagine how all these people must be feeling it must be so cold down there and I should think a bit scary to and what a time for this sort of thing to happen I have always said it we in the west are never prepared !!!!!

[size=75:27u5og6g]Telegraph 20 December 2009


Thousands stranded by Eurostar as chief executive 'cannot guarantee' when service will resume

Thousands of passengers have been left stranded after Eurostar cancelled all services and its chief executive admitted he did not know when trains would be running again.


With five days until Christmas, it is a peak time for travel on Eurostar, with 20,000 people due to cross back and forth underneath the Channel each day.
Engineers from both Eurostar and Eurotunnel spent the weekend investigating the rolling stock and the track to work out why five trains broke down on Friday night.
More than 2,000 passengers were trapped for up to 16 hours, many without food, water or light.
It is thought that the “extremely acute” wintry conditions in northern France caused snow to build up underneath the trains.
When the trains entered the tunnel – which at 77 Fahrenheit (25C) is significantly warmer than outside - the melted snow and condensation worked its way into the electrics and caused a fault.
Three trains operated to try and clear the backlog on Saturday also struggled with the extremes in temperatures.
Richard Brown, chief executive of Eurostar, was unable to give assurance over when trains would run.
“I can’t guarantee our service will be working because we have suspended the service again until we get to the bottom of what happened on Friday night.
“We will not start services again until we are sure we can get them through safely.”
He conceded that trying to clear the backlog of passengers trying to use Eurostar was likely to last over the festive period.
“When we resume service it's going to be very busy, we're not going to be able to carry everyone who's booked during this week.
“We will give a full refund, of course, to anybody who decides not to travel, until the service is returned fully to normal and we have carried the backlog of passengers, so certainly up until Christmas.”
While Eurostar insisted the incident was unprecedented, it appeared to shift the blame for the poor handling of the stranded passengers onto Eurotunnel.
Scores of passengers told how they were left for hours without being told what was happening.
Mr Brown said Eurostar could not communicate with its trains while they were inside the tunnel.
“It is actually Eurotunnel who are the tunnel operator, who are in charge of everything in the tunnel - of the infrastructure in the tunnel, who arrange the evacuation
“They are the operators of the infrastructure. All of the communications systems are through Eurotunnel.”
Although he said he was not trying to blame Eurotunnel, Mr Brown said: “We will be having a very, very thorough and at times pretty rigorous review – together with Eurotunnel – as to where the standard procedure didn’t work.”
Eurostar said it had made emergency arrangements for 500 of its "
most vulnerable"
passengers - elderly and children - caught up in the chaos to travel to Dover and onto France by ferry.
It added that said no arrangements had been made to transport Britons stuck in France.
With Eurostar in disarray, Eurotunnel continued to operate its car service – Le Shuttle – as normal.
Spokesman John Keefe said one service had broken down for an hour on Friday night but the problem was unrelated to Eurostar.
He said services had been disrupted by the bad weather on both sides of the Channel and motorists struggling to reach the trains, but were running a normal service.
Asked about the engineering problem of Eurostar, he said: “They are completely different trains.
“Our trains run around a loop from Folkestone to Calais, they run in a different way.”
Between 5,000 and 6,000 cars were expected to use Le Shuttle yesterday and passengers were advised to give themselves extra time because of the bad weather.

[size=75:32mulpah]novinite 21 December 2009

Latest Update

Eurostar Says Service May Resume Tuesday

The popular Anglo-French Eurostar rail line announced trains could resume service Tuesday as the suspension of its services left 90,000 passengers stranded.

Eurostar said it is conducting test runs with a modification of its engines that, if successful, will allow trains to begin running again Tuesday. Seats for 26,000 passengers will be available Tuesday, Eurostar said.

The popular service was suspended for the third day Monday, and ticket sales have been suspended through Friday, Christmas Day, as officials try to resolve the problems that brought about the service's worst shutdown ever.

France's transport minister said the government would launch a probe into Eurostar's breakdown that occurred during the holiday season, saying a technical shutdown of the service because of weather conditions was unacceptable.

Separately, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on Eurostar to resume operations Tuesday during an emergency meeting with the president of French rail operator SNCF, a shareholder of Eurostar.

Well I have herd it all now they say the problem that caused the trains to stop was FLUFFIER SNOW and warm temperatures in the tunnel.



I take it they couldn't say it was leaves on the line well not in a Tunnel

The rail network in the UK never ceases to amaze me what next?

[size=75:3a1cwz78]novinite 22 December 2009

Eurostar Resumes Limited Service across Channel Tunnel

The operator of Eurostar trains has resumed limited service Tuesday after three full days of disruption which left thousands of passengers stranded on both sides of the English Channel.

Eurostar posted a message on its web site Tuesday morning that limited services would run from 7:30 am to 6 pm GMT. Only those passengers who originally had reserved seats for Saturday or Sunday are eligible for travel on Tuesday. Those with tickets for Monday and Tuesday will be able to travel on Wednesday.

Last Friday some 2 000 passengers got stranded in the Channel Tunnel as a result of breakdowns. Some 90 000 passengers have been affected by the failures. They are reported to have been caused by a “dry” snow that got into the engines of the trains.