Eurostar cancellations this weekend

[Gerald Fiennes]

Any one know what's going on with Eurostar cancelling services tomorrow and Monday because of the SNCF strike? I have a booking, they've said it's cancelled. Can't get through to ES to change it and the website won't allow changes either. Are they just going to queue everyone up in the order they arrive and fill the trains up one by one irrespective of bookings, as they have done during major problems (eg. snow) in the past? Pretty poor customer service, even the airlines do better than this in handling these kind of disruptions!

 

[duesselmartin]

That is interesting. A few days ago they said that Eurostar is not affected by the strike.

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

About 7 trains cancelled on each day so far, perhaps the control centre at Lille is joining in the strike?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

About 7 trains cancelled on each day so far, perhaps the control centre at Lille is joining in the strike?

The cancellations will be services crewed by SNCF staff, surely?

 

[leshuttle]

The cancellations will be services crewed by SNCF staff, surely?

A few of the Brussels trains per day and one of the new Amsterdam evening trains cancelled.

 

[duesselmartin]

A few of the Brussels trains per day and one of the new Amsterdam evening trains cancelled.

Any way to predict future cancelations?

 

[317666]

I e-mailed Eurostar to ask whether they had any information about the 18th of May (an SNCF strike day), as I'm meant to be travelling to Cologne via Brussels. The response I got was that 'direct Eurostar services are not affected by the strike', despite information to the contrary already being posted on their website! Their Twitter feed is full of angry passengers who are being given wrong information about cancellations, are unable to get through to them on the phone, having trouble exchanging tickets etc. What's more, if you've got a return journey, your outward leg is cancelled and you decide not to travel, if the return service you're booked on is running you can't get a refund on that too! Suffice to say, I've decided to fly to Switzerland in August rather than take the train, in case further strikes are announced and this utter shambles continues...

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

Feels like something has gone badly wrong with the ES Customer Service operation over this one. Just had a reply from them saying to try to calling a number i have tried 8 times already for assistance over the past 48 hours....! I thought the idea of having a 'Manage my Booking' function was, indeed, to do just that but it sounds like most people have been able to do so and need call centre assistance. So presumably something like 10,000 pax on each of the strike days have to be re-accommodated. At least BA would have made an attempt to rebook automatically even if it was for a departure in a few days' time!

 

[Groningen]

It was nice of Eurostar to let the first Eurostar run to Amsterdam Centraal last wednesday. However the Paris before and Brussel after that Eurostar were cancelled. At some day that Amsterdam will (maybe) be cancelled.