Eurostar is to carry out an ‘independent review’ into the problems which led to the cancellation of all international services from London for the third day running.

The company has also revealed that it has traced the cause of the problems which stranded five London-bound Eurostars in the Channel Tunnel on Friday night, leaving more than 2000 passengers to be rescued, and the operator is now hoping to restart a limited service on Tuesday.

The review will be led jointly by former Eurotunnel Commercial Director Christopher Garnett and Claude Gressier, who is Inspecteur Général des Ponts et Chaussées. Their inquiry will start immediately, Eurostar said.

The company said it has identified the modifications which will be needed to protect trains in exceptionally bad weather. Condensation had been blamed, because it was thought to have short-circuited electrical systems, causing the trains to stop, but Eurostar said today that snow was a factor. “We now know that we need to further enhance the snow screens and snow shields in the power cars of the trains,” it said.  

Test trains were running again today, leaving at least another 20,000 passengers unable to make their booked journeys on which should be one of the busiest days of the year. In all, more than 100 trains have now been cancelled since services were suspended on Saturday morning. Eurostar has agreed a compensation package for the 2000+ passengers who were directly affected by the problems on Friday, and is also refunding all other bookings for journeys before Christmas on request, leaving the company with a potential shortfall of millions of pounds in lost revenue.

Eurostar is continuing to be heavily criticised for the slowness with which passengers were rescued. Some organised their own evacuation, and witnesses aboard have said some train staff failed to take action.

Eurostar CEO Richard Brown has been urged to resign by one MEP, but Mr Brown told the BBC that his priority was to restore the service and discover exactly what needs to be done to avoid such a crisis occurring again.