GRADUAL RETURN
The Channel Tunnel’s operator Getlink said train traffic would progressively resume on Tuesday afternoon, but passengers were still left not knowing when, or if, they would travel.
One, Sophie Gontowicz, trying to head back to Paris after three days holidaying in the British capital with her family, said she was taking the disruption “philosophically”.
“In the end, it gives us an extra day of vacation,” she told AFP.
But Chaitan Patel, a 46-year-old American, seemed determined to get back to London from the French capital after his train was cancelled.
“We tried to book another one, but everything is sold out. Now we’re looking at every option: plane, car, but even flying is difficult,” he told AFP.
Earlier, Eurostar had advised passengers to postpone their journeys, citing “major disruption” caused by the power problem in the tunnel and “a subsequent failed Le Shuttle train”.
“Please don’t come to the station unless you already have a ticket to travel. We regret that trains that can run are subject to severe delays and last-minute cancellations,” it added.
HIGH DEMAND
A record-high 19.5 million passengers travelled on Eurostar last year, up nearly five per cent on 2023, driven by demand from visitors to the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris.
Eurostar has held a monopoly on passenger services through the tunnel linking Britain and France since it opened in 1994.
But British entrepreneur Richard Branson – the man behind the Virgin airline – has vowed to launch a rival service.
Italy’s Trenitalia has also said it intends to compete with Eurostar on the Paris-London route by 2029.
Tuesday’s disruption was the latest to affect Eurostar at a time when the company has faced criticism over its high prices, especially on the Paris-London route.
An electrical fault forced the cancellation of Eurostar services and severe delays on others in August.
The theft of cables on train tracks in northern France caused two days of problems in June.
LeShuttle operates vehicle-carrying trains between Folkestone in southeast England and Calais in northern France.
