Posted 20th December 2009 | 9 Comments
Eurostar suspended indefinitely, after another train fails
Eurostar has changed its mind about running services on Sunday, following the failure of another train last night. The company, which is paying compensation to an estimated 2000 passengers, will be running test trains instead.
Earlier, Eurostar had said there would be a ‘limited service’ today following the cold weather problems. However, another train failed on Saturday night. It was a special bringing stranded passengers back from Paris, but their journey to London took ten hours instead of just over two.
Two special trains had been run yesterday – one in each direction – but the London-bound set is reported to have failed soon after leaving the Tunnel in Kent. A second train sent to rescue it also experienced problems, and passengers eventually arrived at St Pancras around midnight.
Eurostar said it now needed to ‘better understand the problems that have been occurring’. It's thought that the transition from very cold conditions to the warm tunnel caused condensation on critical electrical circuits, and at least six trains are known to have been affected.
A further statement about a date for restarting services is promised for later today. The problems have come at a particularly bad time: Eurostar would normally have been very busy over the last weekend before the Christmas break.
The company said: “We are committed to restoring our services as soon as possible, but our key priority is the safety and comfort of our customers.”
Meamwhile Nirj Deva, who is Conservative MEP for the South East of England, has called on CEO Richard Brown to resign following the problems. Mr Deva accused Eurostar of being "out of touch".
Reader Comments:
Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.
Steve, Luton, UK
The Eurostar 373 sets are primarily of TGV design but have a LOT more redundancies (backup systems), so that safety/reliability can be maintained in the Channel Tunnel (where the greatest risk of fire occurs). If these safety systems are affected by condensation/snow injested into the power cars, it then instructs itself to shut down because it deems it to be unreliable in those conditions. It would do this even entering the Tunnel slowly. The weather in France has been *exceptional*, like -15C overnight. The Tunnel is about +25-30C. Paris and Brussels airports were shut a lot of the time over the past 3 days, flights cancelled, and Calais port was closed on 19th Dec due to poor weather. If all modes of transport are affected, I don't see why Eurostar should be criticised so acutely.
Fool on the Hill, Norwich, U.K
People take technology completely for granted.Engineers and scientists, funded largely by capitalism,have brought us the most incredible achievements of reliability in personal and public transport.
It's all normally so dependable that no one stops to think things might go wrong so no one stops to think of contingencies for coping with failure.
Weather is usually and historically at the heart of unexpected disruption to transport technology.
Our roads are thrown into complete chaos and danger by a few inches of snow.
Even with sophisticated modern vehicles, weather prediction, salt spreading and snow plows, you can't overcome the fact that snow and ice are an impediment to traction.
With something as big and complex as the eurostar service, there are bound to be vulnerabilities.
There is always a risk to every journey, always was, always will be.Critics should realize this.
Things go wrong, accept it and stop bashing the heroic people who daily perform miracles to run trains, buses, ferries, planes and keep the roads open against unpredictable odds.
This does not detract from the sympathy we should have for the unfortunate travelers caught up in the failure, nor shrink from helping them out.
We might try being grateful that no one was killed or injured.
Eurostar have done all they could.
It really is just one of those things.
andrew ganley, cheam, england
Richard Budden got it spot on, instead of hurtling into the tunnell at 200KPH+
why not slow down a tad on approach?experts for years.
and love the pics of those puny 1200HP shunting locos trying to haul a 16 coach Eurostar,!! take a leaf out of Virgin Trains they have 2700HP 'Thunderbird' locos at various stations.
Tony Hillman, London
Remember all the jokes about UK trains and the wrong type of snow. How the media is always telling us that UK railways are rubbish and the French are wonderful. Perhaps someone should explain that the Eurostar trains that can't cope with snow melting onto the electrics are of French design.
Chris Packham, Birmingham
Not sure it's a resignation matter but Richard Brown was rather smug and dismissive on TV yesterday, with little hint of regret or understanding of the shambles his passengers faced. Typical 'one of those things' attitude of rail managers and a PR disaster for the industry.
Richard Budden, Luton, UK
I have the same problem when I go into my local pub - my glasses steam up. It takes about three minutes for them to clear. Perhaps if the train was to stop for ten minutes as soon as it got into the tunnel this would allow the outside of the train to warm up and the condensation would clear and no further condensation would form.
Prof. John Sharp (retired), Huddersfield, England
Oh dear, what a mess!
Condensation and rapidly changing temperatures have always been a problem
for me too, particularly at NASA during the late 60s and early 70s.
Liquid oxygen and 100+ degrees ambiant, what a contradiction!
Persevere boys and girls, the solution will come.
You could of course consult Nirj Deva MEP, the well known authority and expert on computer controlled elecrtic traction, although I suspect Mr. Deva is
more an expert on gravy trains.
Adrian Edwards, Glasgow, UK
What a stupid thing to say, Nirj Deva! These trains are extremely reliable, and engineering them to cope with wholly freakish weather conditions (which might occur once in 20 years) would have been a waste of money.
And I think it's a bit rich for any MEP to accuse someone of being out of touch. The scandal of MEP expenses has yet to break -- it seems to be far worse than Westminster's.
marc.van montagu, Brussels, Belgium
We are stuck in lONDON? RETURN TICKETS FOR TODAY sUNDAY 20.
What should we do? Where can we have information? What phone number, what e-mail address?