Power failure paralyses Channel Tunnel rail traffic, causing travel mayhem

Train services through the Channel Tunnel linking Britain and continental Europe were suspended for much of Tuesday after a power supply failure, bringing chaos topeak winter holiday travel.

The disruption, caused by a fault in the overhead power supply, upended plans for thousands of passengers in London, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year.

In a statement on its website at 1530 GMT, high-speed train operator Eurostar said that the 31-mile-long (50-km) tunnel was partially reopened and that services were resuming gradually. But it warned passengers that the power fault was persisting.

“We strongly recommend that all our passengers postpone their journeys to another date,” Eurostar said.

Getlink, which operates the tunnel infrastructure and the Le Shuttle service carrying cars and trucks, said repairs to the power supply were underway and that traffic services were slowly being restored in both directions.

Getlink said the fault was a technical issue and that there was no suspicion of foul play or sabotage. Additional services would be activated on Tuesday evening and Wednesday to help clear the backlog, it added.

The disruption affects one of Europe’s busiest international rail corridors at the height of the New Year travel season.

HOLIDAY PLANS UPENDED

Several hundred Le Shuttle passengers were stuck in their vehicles after passing through passport checks and security at the terminal in Folkestone. For several hours they were told by officials that they could neither go forward – there were no trains – nor backward, because they had already crossed into the French control zone.

Workers handed out diapers and baby food.

Alison Raby had booked a day trip to a theme park in Belgium, but she said the long delay made the excursion pointless. “We’re stuck, basically,” she told Reuters.

Fellow passenger Phil Groves, who works for Britain’s National Health Service and was en route to Paris for New Year’s Eve, said he and his family had been stuck at Folkestone for more than six hours and were held in a “mammoth queue”.

“We’ve been told that the first train will be departing shortly but we won’t be on it as there are so many people ahead of us!” he said as the services resumed.

Britain’s Port of Dover said it was operating a “turn up and go” system for passengers affected by the tunnel disruption and that Channel ferry operators currently had capacity to take extra travellers.

Le Shuttle carried 2.2 million passenger vehicles 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.

Stranded passengers crowded the concourse at London’s St Pancras station on Tuesday. One was led away by police, shouting “I just want to know if I’ll see my family” after an exchange with a Eurostar worker.