Anger After Failed Eurostars Cause Five-hour Chaos

摘要

Passengers and industry watchdogs have criticised Channel Tunnel rescue procedures after two Class 373 failures in two days threw the Channel Tunnel operation into chaos. On November 28, the 09.40 St Pancras-Paris Eurostar broke down inside the Tunnel and its passengers were left on board for around five hours. Many were in distress as the air-conditioning, public address system and finally the lighting failed, leaving them in darkness. Eventually, the train was propelled out by another Class 373 and taken to Frethun. The second incident occurred two days later when a Eurostar set working the 18.43 Paris-London failed at the British end of the Tunnel. Again, it was several hours before a rescue could be effected even though the front-end of the train was in the open air. A Eurotunnel loco dragged the set clear of the tunnel mouth on to HS1, during which time a spare set was sent from Temple Mills depot. This coupled up to the failed set and dragged it to Ashford International, where passengers swapped to the replacement set. A Eurostar spokesman said that both incidents involved total power failure to the sets and were "under active investigation".