[Anonymous]

[AMcWhirter]

Breaking news: Lorry fire closes Channel Tunnel.

Eurostar suspends all services for the remainder of today. A website alert tells passengers “do not come to the station” and “to postpone your journey.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30863024

http://news.sky.com/story/1409783/eurostar-cancels-all-trains-after-lorry-fire

[transtraxman]

Does this not mean that the options of the airlines and FERRIES should be kept open? It makes me think of the recent movements in this aspect. Speaking from memory, was there not a European directive against North Sea ferry CO2 emissions recently? – which was not applied in the Med. Is it not time to call for a rethink on the subject?

Does anyone have more information?

[AMcWhirter]

I can’t help regarding the North Sea ferry emissions …

But, yes, the options must be kept open and in any case Eurotunnel lacks the capacity to cope if there were no ferries.

Also nowdays more travellers have begun using Euostar for rail travel beyond Brussels and Paris. So any Tunnel closure is not good news for rail passengers heading for Holland, Germany, Switzerland, South of France and so on.

[rjhcambs]

Re-ferry CO2/sulphur emissions. DFDS said that was the reason for their recent withdrawal from the Harwich-Esbjerg route. Ironically to get to Norway now we take the ferry Harwich to Hook of Holland and then a speedy 15+ hours up through Germany to Northern Denmark which must create a good few kilos of greenhouse gases compared to shipping the car on a ferry to Esbjerg!

[andystock]

St pancras will be one long qeuee then!

[AMcWhirter]

Good news.

Eurostar trains will be running tomorrow. But as only one Tunnel bore will be open, passengers are told to expect delays of 30 to 60 mins.

But passengers already holding bookings for Sunday will take priority over passengers who were unable to travel today.

[SimonS1]

Is there a tunnel equivalent of EU261?

[AMcWhirter]

Simon – I don’t know about Eurotunnel but Eurostar has its own compensation scheme for delays such as the one experienced today.

Am open to correction but I don’t believe there is any EU compensation scheme covering international rail which is equivalent to aviation’s EU261.

[LuganoPirate]

I believe SNCF has a compensation scheme for late arrivals but I’m not sure of either the terms, the amounts or if it’s mandatory under French law. Not much help I agree but I’ll try and find out more.

[AMcWhirter]

Trains have begun running but there are operational problems so delays are considerable.

Eurostar has told the BBC that the first trains from Brussels and Paris are not expected to arrive into London until after 13.00hrs GMT.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30868990

For readers have been affected by the disruption here are details of Eurostar’s “Disruption Package.”

http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/service-information/disruption-compensation

[AMcWhirter]

Eurostar is now saying it cannot operate a full timetable today. A number of trains are now cancelled for the remainder of today.

http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-information/service-information/eurostar-service-update

[MartynSinclair]

Why cant Eurostar have a structured recovery plan for these admittedly, infrequent, close down events? The lack of Eurostar agents (as reported on Sky News) assisting passengers and the lack of rebooking options, does highlight the “house of cards” effects, Eurostar suffers.

I know its only 24 hours and I know by Monday it will get back to normal, but try telling that to the passengers that were turned away.

At least with the airlines, competitors do speak to each other to try and accommodate each others passengers when things go wrong. Why cant Eurostar agree a recovery, though the airlines…?

Just a thought…..

[SimonS1]

Not good news for those travelling – makes the ‘End of the Cross Channel Ferry’ thread a bit redundant though…..

[DavidGordon10]

It is an impression – no more – that the Channel Tunnel has more of these closure problems than other long distance tunnels, such as those under the Alps, or the Seikan Tunnel in Japan.

Is my impression correct? Does anyone know the data? If I am right, then why does it have more problems?

[Author]

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