EXCLUSIVE Plans to promote Eurostar CEO Richard Brown to the post of chairman have been put on hold indefinitely, while the company struggles to recover from the crisis before Christmas in which some 2000 passengers were stranded in the Channel Tunnel for up to five hours.

The Board of Eurostar, which is dominated by SNCF, had intended to move Richard Brown to the post of non-executive chairman at the start of the New Year, with chief operating officer Nicolas Petrovic being promoted to replace him as CEO.

But RAILNEWS has learnt that the moves have been postponed, if not cancelled -- Eurostar is declining to say when they might now take place. The change of heart also means that SNCF President Guillaume Pepy stays as chairman of the operator, which was reconstituted as one entity, Eurostar International, on 1 January.

Mr Brown had been reported to have received a 10% pay rise, taking his salary over £500,000, but Eurostar now says that no senior staff are receiving pay rises this year. Mr Brown is taking a crucial role in an internal review of the Christmas crisis, which is being run by former Eurotunnel Commercial Director Christopher Garnett and French transport inspector Claude Gressier.

They are examining the events of 18 December, when five London-bound trains stalled in the Channel Tunnel. It's understood that snow in northern France melted on sensitive electrical equipment inside the power cars once the trains had entered the warmer Tunnel, causing multiple system failures.

The incident has caused widespread criticism of Eurostar's handling of the event, and a war of words has broken out between Eurostar and Eurotunnel, which operates the Tunnel itself. Eurostar services were suspended for three days following the problems, and only restarted on the Tuesday before Christmas. It's reported that the French president Nicolas Sarkozy had intervened on Monday, and ordered Eurostar chairman Guillaume Pepy to get the trains running again.

The results of the review are not expected before the end of the month.