Eurostar rail links between England and Europe have been restored after a technical fault was resolved; however, complications from recent weaning still persist.
The Eurostar railway company, which operates train connections between Europe and Britain, has announced that all services will operate on Wednesday. The connection was suspended for most of Tuesday due to a technical fault in the Channel Tunnel, which resulted in an outage of the overhead power line. However, even after services are restored, there may be delays or cancellations of connections at the last minute. TASR informs Reuters about it.
- Eurostar has resumed train services.
- A technical fault in the tunnel caused a temporary stop to traffic.
- There were delays and complications during the New Year peak.
- Getlink fixed the power issue and the tunnel is working again.
- Competitive services on this route are planned until 2029.
The stoppage, originally blocked by a Le Shuttle train carrying cars between Folkstone, England and Calais, France, in the tunnel caused chaos during the busy New Year period, forcing passengers to seek alternative transport. Scores of people with luggage were stranded at London’s St Pancras station and Paris’ Gare du Nord station, while some spent the night on trains and waited for hours outside the tunnel.
Restoration of traffic in the tunnel
The resumption of two-way traffic in the Channel Tunnel was announced on Wednesday morning by Getlink, which operates it. In a statement, according to AFP, it said the power problem had been resolved during the night.
Eurostar advised passengers to postpone their journey after the incident. The British station BBC, referring to the company’s website, pointed out that although the first train from Paris to London left on Wednesday morning according to the schedule, delays of more than an hour are already indicated for other morning connections.
Expected complications
“We plan to operate all our services today, however due to other circumstances there may be some delays and possible last-minute cancellations,” Eurostar said in a statement.
Eurostar operates passenger trains from London St Pancras station to Paris, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Brussels. It transported a record 19.5 million passengers last year, which is almost five percent more than in 2023.
Since the opening of the tunnel connecting Britain and France in 1994, Eurostar has had a monopoly on this transport. British businessman Richard Branson, behind the airline company Virgin Group, announced plans to launch a competing service on this route in the next few years. By 2029, Italy’s Trenitalia also intends to compete with Eurostar on the Paris-London route.
