[AMcWhirter]

Most of you will have seen the news yesterday regarding the London-Amsterdam Eurostar which failed just before it entered the Tunnel.

700 passengers were stranded for hours onboard, with no electricity power, on a cold winter’s day.

Ever since Eurostar first entered service in 1994 there have been numerous failures or disruption which, to be fair, were not always Eurostar’s fault. The operator always told the media it would improve its communication to customers in future.

It appears passengers were not informed or not well informed of what was happening.

What puzzles some people. see the link below for details of the incident, is that if the onboard communications’ system was out of action then why was it not possible for a staff member(s) to walk through the train explaining the situation to passengers the old-fashioned way.

Railtech.com notes “As the short winter day wore on, without any rescue for the stricken train, passengers reported deteriorating conditions as the train grew dark due to the power outage, leaving them without information or assistance from the crew.

“Some passengers were puzzled as to why the train staff could not employ some radical communication technology – like walking the train and reporting the situation in person.”

https://www.railtech.com/all/2023/12/01/eurostar-breakdown-leaves-700-passengers-stranded-for-seven-hours/?gdpr=accept

[ASK1945]

“Ever since Eurostar first entered service in 1994 there have been numerous failures or disruption which, to be fair, were not always Eurostar’s fault”.

Anyone who has owned a business of any size knows that sh$t happens, sometimes from external circumstances.

A good business – which puts its customers first – has a backup strategy for when (not just if) this happens. It has never ceased to amaze me how often Eurostar has failed to operate an immediate response to the frequent failures.

[AMcWhirter]

More problems tonight (December 1) for Eurostar. Evening trains are cancelled.

An alert posted on its website says “We’re sorry we’ve had to cancel our evening trains on December 1.

“This is due to strike action in Calais resulting in the early closure of the high-speed line we use in Northern France.”

The strike by SNCF rail workers has affected rail services in France today.

[MarcusGB]

We keep starting new Eurostar topics, when the issues result in the same consequences, especially around Xmas, and Peak periods.!
I pity the overseas tourists caught in this , when we all know the reliability of Eurostar at such times, is Predictably unreliable!
At least The Dutch were being offered KLM tickets where possible i was advised!!!

[AMcWhirter]

Thanks for the info MarcusGB.

Probably only the first train out of Amsterdam yesterday would have made it through to London.

Therefore the hundreds of customers booked on the later departures would not have been able to depart so, if they wanted to reach London that day, they would have to turn to aviation.

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MarcusGB

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