Channel Tunnel services resume after truck fire forced link closure
Print Edition
TRAIN service through the Channel Tunnel between France and Britain resumed early yesterday, a day after a lorry fire forced the crucial link’s closure and suspension of all trains, operator Eurotunnel said.
“Our passenger service is currently operating to schedule with up to one departure per hour,” the firm said on its website.
Eurostar, which offers passenger rail services between London, Brussels and Paris, said schedules were set to return to normal yesterday.
The fire on Saturday forced all Eurostar trains already en route to turn back to their stations of origin, while 42 people were evacuated from the truck shuttle using the service tunnel.
Police in southern England have said the fire was “at the French end of the tunnel and is being dealt with by the French authorities.”
“There are no reported injuries,” police added.
The fire sparked travel chaos in Britain and France with long queues for refunds reported at London’s St Pancras station.
In November 2012, a fire on a freight train halted traffic in the tunnel for two hours.
Four years earlier, a lorry fire caused major damage in the tunnel, affecting 650 meters of the structure and gumming up traffic for 30 hours.
Some 400 trains and 1.5 million lorries pass through the tunnel every day.
Although the incident did not cause major damage, “there was a lot of smoke,” said Denis Gaudin, an official from the French northern city of Calais.
Initial fears, said Eurostar’s chief executive, Nicolas Petrovic, had been that the disruption would keep one of the two tunnels out of action yesterday, causing continued delays. He said that “several thousand” customers had to rearrange travel plans.
But Eurotunnel spokesman said inspections showed “it doesn’t look like anything significant at this stage. We hope we will be running a full service.”
For many passengers on the popular line, the chaos on Saturday meant either an enforced stay in France or Britain — or doing things the old fashioned way and going by sea.
“The Eurostar people told us to watch the Internet for updates. We're going to find a hotel close to the station so we’re covered for any eventuality,” said one stranded passenger in Lille, on the French side.
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