Yesterday passengers on a Eurostar service from Brussels to London were stuck for many often tedious hours only a handful of kilometres from the entrance to Channel Tunnel. The train came to a halt around 10am on Sunday morning, but it was not until around 5pm that a replacement train arrived at the scene. That replacement train too was stuck there for yet more unwelcome hours due to technical issues.
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Stranded Eurostar passengers face horror as 2 faulty trains break down
Colin Clapson
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The first train suffered an electrical failure just past the French city of Calais. According to one passenger on board, the air conditioning was not working and passengers had to wait for hours before being evacuated from the train. Meanwhile, the loos also stopped working.
Passengers were finally evacuated from the train around 3pm. Photos and videos on social media show dozens of people, including emergency workers, standing by the tracks with their luggage. ‘We are getting very little news,’ Nathalie, who was on the train, told VRT.
She was informed that a replacement train was due to arrive but It was not until around 5pm, hours after the initial announcement, that a replacement train eventually made an appearance. ‘We waited in the sun along the tracks for about 2 hours,’ Nathalie sighs.
And that was not the end of the agony for the affected Eurostar passengers. At first the replacement train could not leave either due to technical problems. It was only around 7.30pm that the fault was fixed and the replacement train was finally able to set in motion.