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Eurostar blamed for Channel disruptions
Source: Agencies |
February 12, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
EUROSTAR'S lack of winter preparations was responsible for the train breakdowns last December that left thousands of passengers trapped beneath the Channel Tunnel for hours and snarled holiday travel for days, a French daily reported yesterday.
The report in Le Parisien daily cited the findings of two experts who Eurostar hired to investigate the debacle. Their report is to be released today.
On the evening of December 18, five trains broke down under the Channel Tunnel, the only land link between Britain and the European continent. Some 2,000 travelers were trapped for up to 16 hours, and at least 40,000 others saw their travel plans upended by a subsequent three-day-long suspension in Eurostar service at the height of the holiday travel season.
At the time, company officials said unusually dry, powdery snow that got into the trains' engines was responsible for the breakdown. But they also blamed Eurotunnel - which operates the Channel Tunnel - for delays in rescuing passengers from the stuck trains, and Eurostar operations chief Nicolas Petrovic did not rule out legal action against Eurotunnel.
The experts' report, however, pins the lion's share of the blame on Eurostar, saying the company's aging and poorly maintained trains were ill-prepared for such weather. "Nearly all of the recommendations that they are going to make concern" Eurostar - and not Eurotunnel, the daily said.
The report in Le Parisien daily cited the findings of two experts who Eurostar hired to investigate the debacle. Their report is to be released today.
On the evening of December 18, five trains broke down under the Channel Tunnel, the only land link between Britain and the European continent. Some 2,000 travelers were trapped for up to 16 hours, and at least 40,000 others saw their travel plans upended by a subsequent three-day-long suspension in Eurostar service at the height of the holiday travel season.
At the time, company officials said unusually dry, powdery snow that got into the trains' engines was responsible for the breakdown. But they also blamed Eurotunnel - which operates the Channel Tunnel - for delays in rescuing passengers from the stuck trains, and Eurostar operations chief Nicolas Petrovic did not rule out legal action against Eurotunnel.
The experts' report, however, pins the lion's share of the blame on Eurostar, saying the company's aging and poorly maintained trains were ill-prepared for such weather. "Nearly all of the recommendations that they are going to make concern" Eurostar - and not Eurotunnel, the daily said.
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