Eurostar Nightmare: Thousands Stuck In Tunnel For Up To 15 Hours (Video)

in General by Jon C — December 20, 2009 at 10:45 pm | 0 comments

Scared, hungry, struggling without lighting and heating, herded around like cattle…

That’s what two thousand Eurostar train passengers are telling media tonight as they return home after being stuck on trains in the undersea Channel tunnel for hours.

Four trains on the Eurostar line joining London and Paris broke down after entering the tunnel on the French coast Friday night.

The three hour journey turned into a nightmare that lasted up to 15 hours.

Eurostar has now cancelled services, blaming the cold weather hitting Europe this weekend.

Eurostar’s explanation is that the electrical systems froze when the trains leaving the French freezing temperatures hit the tunnel’s warmer, damp underwater atmosphere. The hot air in the tunnel melted snow which accumulated under the trains, causing the trains to come to a sudden halt. The water then dripped into operating systems.

Passengers, who at first feared a bomb and blamed a lack of communication throughout from Eurostar staff, talk of being led in freezing conditions from one train to another, up and down the tunnel with no offers of water, food, blankets. They were stuck in pitch-dark unheated trains, shivering and frightened.

The Mirror newspaper reported that women passed out, children were vomiting, fights broke out, and people were forced to urinate in the aisles amid chaotic scenes, while passengers,including supermodel Claudia Schiffer, were told to evacuate their trains and find their own way in darkness to rescue locomotives. Some later claimed Schiffer got special treatment. One grandmother claimed Eurostar staff told some passengers to stop breathing so heavily as “there is not enough oxygen for everyone.”

Similar problems happened back in February when two trains were stuck for some hours and the UK government tonight promises a review.

Here’s the latest from ITV:

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