Eurostar issues snow delay report
An independent report has criticised Eurostar over its breakdown in service in December 2009.
An independent report into the delay to five trains caused by the heavy snowfall in December 2009 has highly criticised Eurostar. The snow on 18-20 December 2009, during which services were cancelled for three days, left thousands of passengers stranded.
More than 2,500 people were trapped in the Channel Tunnel for up to five hours – the first time this had happened in 15 years. Among the £30 million worth of promised improvements will be the purchase of two rescue trains and a state-of-the-art communication system for within the tunnel.
The Independent Eurostar Review was requested by both the UK and French governments of the UK and France. Christopher Garnett and Claude Gressier, Joint Chairmen of the Review, said: “This incident caused some passengers distress and others enormous disruption to their holiday plans at a critical time. We believe there are three lessons to be learned.”
More than 20 recommendations have been put forward by the Review, which fall into the three categories: train reliability; evacuation & rescue; and managing disruption & improving communication.
The company came under criticism for its insufficient contingency plans and its provision of information to passengers over that period of time. The report acknowledged, however, that Eurostar had unprecedented volumes of passengers to deal with at the time.
The heavy snow caused considerable problems – it entered the trains’ components, melted, and then saturated the power components of the vehicles, causing electric malfunctions. The screens placed inside the trains “were not adequate to cope with the build-up of snow experienced”.
The train company said in a statement: “Eurostar is fully committed to ensuring that the disruption our travellers experienced before Christmas never happens again and that we win back your confidence and trust in our service.”
Eurostar’s ticket sales for 2009 totalled a record £675.5 million – an increase of 1.7% on last year – with an increase of 1.2% in traveller numbers to 9.2 million.
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I travelled from Brussels on eurostar on 11th February - the 16.59 train. It was not that cold, only a little snow. We were warned of speed restrictions. but the point is that our train developed its very own fault and stopped at Ashford for what felt like an eternity to sort it out. Finally we got going.
However, our carriage had missing lights from the start and I believe that the ageing trains are now showing signs of wear and tear.
My question is this: are Eurostar doing proper maintenance on their trains? I suspect they may not be,
it is crucial for safety that Eurostar maintain their trains in good order!
February 12th, 2010 at 11:03 pm