Posted 17th May 2010 | 1 Comment
Eurostar services disrupted by unknown fault
Trains to and from London were delayed for most of Saturday
EUROSTAR faced disruption on Saturday, after the Channel Tuunel was closed for more than 90 minutes. The cause was a carbon dioxide sensor which had been triggered by an unknown fault. No one was hurt in the incident, but cross-Channel trains continued to be affected for the rest of the day.
The alert began at 07.00 British time, and all traffic heading for the Tunnel was halted while the problem was dealt with. A Eurotunnel shuttle was evacuated without any problems, but several thousand passengers were delayed.
The Tunnel was reopened later the same morning, but single track working continued until the afternoon, causing more delays to trains.
Eurostar said its services had returned to normal by the early evening, and that no trains had been cancelled.
Eurotunnel has launched an inquiry.
Reader Comments:
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Stuart Ward, stourbridge, UK
i was one of the drivers caught up in this, to say there was confusion is an understatement.
Initially on arrival I was told there was an hours delay, but in the terminal the announcement was unknown delay. Then they announced day trippers could get a transfer, but no refund. But customer services, who only had 2 advisors on who were struggling to cope, said there was an hours delay and earlier departures were called to their vehicles and moved off the car park.
Then we discovered that actually it was an hours delay before we could move to the departure point around the corner from the car park with a further 2 hours delay there before we got on a train. Back in the terminal I was then told it would be at least 3 hours before departure and that I could get a refund which when I ring the contact number today I get the greeting message and then just get cut off.
Not very impressive