Thousands of Eurostar passengers were left stranded for hours at train stations on Tuesday when a power supply issue and a failed train blocked all traffic through the Channel Tunnel for several hours.<\/p>\n
Eurostar services began to resume late on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
A problem with the overhead power supply and a failed LeShuttle train blocked all routes earlier on Tuesday, causing travel chaos for thousands trying to get away to celebrate the new year.<\/p>\n
The passenger rail operator previously said all of its London to Europe services for the day were cancelled, but it later said trains would resume after the tunnel was partially reopened.<\/p>\n
However it urged customers to rebook travel for a different date and not to come to London St Pancras station if their train\u2019s cancellation was confirmed.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, Eurostar said: \u201cAs the Channel Tunnel has partially reopened we will start to resume services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe overhead power supply issue remains, and we strongly advise all our passengers to postpone their journey to a different date.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease don\u2019t come to the station if your train is confirmed as cancelled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe regret that trains that can run will be subject to severe delays and possible last-minute cancellations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Channel Tunnel accommodates Eurostar services as well as LeShuttle vehicle-carrying trains between the UK and France.<\/p>\n
Cars hoping to cross the Eurotunnel caused traffic jams on the approach to the Folkestone terminal.<\/p>\n
Charles Nduka-Eze, from Nigeria, was on a train with his family from London to Paris at around 7am before it returned to London.<\/p>\n
Speaking at St Pancras station, he said: \u201cIn a nutshell, it\u2019s a complete disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Nduka-Eze said the group had checked out of their London hotel and had already paid for their holiday in Paris, including river cruises and to take the children to Disneyland, as well as hotel rooms for nine members of his family.<\/p>\n
LeShuttle passenger Tim Brown said he had been stuck in his car on the train at the Calais terminal for more than three hours with \u201cno access to food or water\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Brown, who is trying to get back to the UK after spending Christmas in Germany, is travelling with his dogs Rilo and Vinnie who he said are \u201chating life\u201d stuck on the train.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that nobody has come around offering everybody a bottle of water is what has shocked me the most,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know things happen, but surely that would be an easy way to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
A man travelling to Paris for New Year\u2019s Eve with his partner said \u201cwe\u2019ll have to put romance on hold\u201d, after their Eurostar train was cancelled.<\/p>\n
John Paul, from Peterborough, was bought the trip as a surprise Christmas present from his partner Lucy and said they had spent five hours on a Paris-bound train before it unexpectedly returned to London.<\/p>\n
Speaking at King\u2019s Cross St Pancras, the 46-year-old said: \u201cWe left on the seven o\u2019clock train this morning, we were sat on the train for about an hour, I think, waiting to leave from here, and then we got probably about an hour down the track, maybe 40 minutes, and then they basically said the train\u2019s got to stop because the train ahead got a braking issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey kept telling us that the driver was trying to fix the brakes on this other train and that the other trains were then backed up and that was basically the same story that we were told all the way through.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the thing is, at the minute there\u2019s no clear information and obviously we\u2019ve lost a lot of money, haven\u2019t we?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Paul said they had a river cruise in Paris and the Eiffel Tower booked for Tuesday evening, adding: \u201cWe\u2019ll have to put romance on hold for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of Eurostar passengers were left stranded for hours at train stations on Tuesday when a power supply…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1814,42,43,40,38,41,39,303],"class_list":{"0":"post-219351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-france","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}