Reuters
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Train services through the Channel Tunnel, which connects Britain to continental Europe, were suspended on Tuesday due to a power outage, disrupting peak winter holiday travel.
A spokeswoman for Eurostar, which operates high-speed trains between London and Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Disneyland Paris, said services had been suspended indefinitely. Travelers at Gare du Nord were told that services would be suspended until the end of the day.
GetLink, which operates the tunnel infrastructure and the Le Shuttle service that transports cars and trucks, said power supply repairs were underway and traffic was expected to gradually resume from 2pm GMT (9am ET).
“Due to a problem with the overhead power supply in the Channel Tunnel, which subsequently caused the Le Shuttle train to break down, we strongly advise all passengers to postpone their journey to another date,” Eurostar said in a statement.
The disruption affected one of Europe’s busiest international rail routes at the height of the New Year travel season.
Hundreds of Le Shuttle passengers were trapped in their cars after passing passport and security checks at the Folkestone terminal.
Officials said the plane could not move forward or backward for the time being as it had already entered the French control zone.
Alison Lavie said she had booked a day trip to a theme park in Belgium, but a four-hour delay made the trip pointless.
“Basically, we are stuck,” she told Reuters.
Passenger Phil Groves, who works for Britain’s National Health Service and was on his way to Paris on New Year’s Eve, said he and his family were stranded in Folkestone for six hours and held in a “huge queue”.
“We don’t have any information other than that the service has been suspended,” he said.
Britain’s Port of Dover is operating a “turn up and go” system for passengers affected by the tunnel disruption, and said the ferry company now has the capacity to take additional passengers.
Le Shuttle transported 2.2 million cars and 1.2 million trucks through the tunnel in 2024. Eurostar carried 19.5 million customers in the same year, its most successful to date.
The concourse of St Pancras station in London was packed with stranded passengers. One person was taken away by police after an interaction with a Eurostar employee, who shouted: “I just want to know if I can see my family.”
