Eurostar and Channel Tunnel services are expected to return to normal overnight after a power supply issue halted trains between London and mainland Europe.
LONDON: Channel Tunnel traffic should return to normal overnight after a power supply issue halted Eurostar services connecting London to mainland Europe.
Operator Getlink announced the expected recovery on Tuesday, following a day of travel chaos during the busy New Year period.
Eurostar had earlier postponed all services between London, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels, leaving travellers scrambling for alternatives.
The Channel Tunnel partially reopened in the afternoon, allowing Eurostar to begin running services again from around 1600 GMT.
Getlink stated that traffic was being re-established in both directions on an alternative basis.
“Work will continue this evening and should allow a return to normal overnight,” the operator added.
Eurostar warned passengers that the overhead power supply issue remained and strongly advised them to postpone their journeys.
Services would be subject to severe delays and last-minute cancellations, the company said.
It urged passengers not to go to the station if their train was confirmed as cancelled.
Eurostar’s site showed that even continental services not using the Channel Tunnel, such as those between Paris and Brussels, were cancelled during the day.
A failed LeShuttle train in the Channel Tunnel compounded the power problem.
Crowds of stranded travellers swelled at London’s St Pancras International station and at the Gare du Nord in Paris.
“I’m disappointed. We were going to do New Year’s Eve in Paris,” said Jessica, a 21-year-old business coordinator in London.
Jodie, 37, told AFP the disruption had ruined a holiday in Paris with her husband and four-year-old daughter.
Some travellers, like Sophie Gontowicz, took the disruption philosophically, seeing it as an extra day of vacation.
In Paris, 19-year-old British traveller Grace Emery said she might try to catch a ferry instead.
American traveller Chaitan Patel, 46, was determined to get back to London, looking at every option including planes and cars.
A record-high 19.5 million passengers travelled on Eurostar last year, driven by demand from visitors to the Paris Olympics.
Tuesday’s disruption was the latest to affect Eurostar, which has faced criticism over high prices.
An electrical fault forced cancellations and severe delays in August.
The theft of cables on train tracks in northern France caused two days of problems in June.
