Eurostar disruption 30th November

[Citybreak1]

Electrical cable falls on Eurostar train

The incident is expected to have knock-on effects on the busy London-Brussels-Amsterdam route.

www.politico.eu

ON THE EUROSTAR OUTSIDE THE CHANNEL TUNNEL, England — An overhead electrical cable snapped and fell onto a Eurostar train headed from London to Amsterdam, via Brussels on Thursday morning.

Some unhappy people on social media platform X saying stuck in train 6 hours. Seemingly same issue happened back in 2010.

 

[Saint66]

Have got friends on this train, which was the 8:16am departure from St Pancras.

They describe conditions onboard as ‘dire’. Toilets have overflowed, food has run out, and people have started smoking onboard. No aircon and announcements stopped hours ago, with staff trying to go coach to coach to provide updates.

In the last few minutes the train has started moving as it gets pulled clear of the wire that came down.

 

[AndrewE]

A POLITICO reporter on a later Eurostar train from London was informed they would be able to overtake the stationary train on the other track.

sounds like appalling customer service... I can imagine the people on the failed train saying "never again!" Is it really completely impossible to detrain them?

 

[Saint66]

The trapped train is now on the move, being dragged back to London. Friends onboard report that with daylight almost gone, they’re sat in the pitch black.

 

[mad_rich]

It must be very cold too, with the heat off. Outside temp a few degrees above 0.

 

[TFN]

Would things have been different if Ashford Intl platforms were open?
Get a unit from Temple mills to do the unit swap for a cross platform change there, instead of being dragged all the way to London (I presume at reduced speed).

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Would things have been different if Ashford Intl platforms were open?
Get a unit from Temple mills to do the unit swap for a cross platform change there, instead of being dragged all the way to London (I presume at reduced speed).

Posts on se-gen suggest it's being dragged only as far as an energised section and will then return to London under its own power, which suggests that the pantographs aren't damaged.

It's also apparently being dragged by a pair of the Krupps locomotives.

 

[D6130]

....and those of us sitting at Paris Nord after our train was cancelled are being told that the problems are being caused by a strike by some Eurostar staff. Is that also an ongoing parallel issue?

 

[Saint66]

Posts on se-gen suggest it's being dragged only as far as an energised section and will then return to London under its own power, which suggests that the pantographs aren't damaged.

It's also apparently being dragged by a pair of the Krupps locomotives.

Can confirm. The set now has power so is presumably propelling itself back to London.

 

[Trainguy34]

Anyone know what the RTT link to the return journey is?

 

[D6130]

Suspect that the batteries would have been flat hours before the train was rescued....hence no lights, no heating and no announcements.

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

Past experience of this kind of incident means that I always advise people to carry at least a bottle of water with them if they go on ES. The batteries don't last long on the 373s (c.2 hours?) and it sounds like also on the 374s, and then the ventilation and toilets become a problem pretty quickly. These kind of incidents unfortunately can often take ages to resolve, particularly when there are several parties to the situation (here it sounds like it would be ET, SNCF Reseau & ES itself).... Detrainment of a set carrying maybe 6-800 people is not an easy task....

 

[rvdborgt]

So why does it take them almost all day to get this train dragged out? I mean, after an hour or so, it should normally be clear what's damaged and what can and cannot be done, and it should be time to get the emergency locomotives out.

 

[Citybreak1]

No working toilets seems a bit of an issue then. The article from 2010 suggested they had to go elsewhere on train. And smoking on train I assume this train will take a bit of a deep clean to get it back into service?

 

[ShadowKnight]

So why does it take them almost all day to get this train dragged out? I mean, after an hour or so, it should normally be clear what's damaged and what can and cannot be done, and it should be time to get the emergency locomotives out.

I presume there just isn't that much anticipation for such an event and that any plans they do have for emergencies take too long to take effect.

Or maybe this is how the french do it as hs1 is essentially a french style LGV.

 

[williamn]

Similar situations on the ECML recently saw passengers detrained to an adjacent train after a few hours. Why is this not possible on Eurostar? 7 hours is appalling.

 

[popeter45]

Sounds like the issue was actually getting to the train?, potentially had to remove the fallen line before it was safe to send a locomotive down?

 

[mad_rich]

I may be showing my ignorance here, but when lines come down like this are the passengers and crew on the train in any danger? I guess the relevant circuit breaker will trip instantly, but it always gives me nightmares the thought of overhead lines (or indeed third rail) coming into contact with a carriage.

 

[popeter45]

I may be showing my ignorance here, but when lines come down like this are the passengers and crew on the train in any danger? I guess the relevant circuit breaker will trip instantly, but it always gives me nightmares the thought of overhead lines (or indeed third rail) coming into contact with a carriage.

same as when a car or plane is struck with lightning the metal body acts as a faraday cage to shield the passengers inside

 

[Beebman]

A YouTuber with a drone has posted a 49-second video with an aerial view of the stricken train which near the end (at 0:41) shows two Krupp-MaK locos on the London end of it:

The London to Brussels service was stranded just outside the Eurotunnel today, a powerline came down on top of the train bringing it to a stand. The passengers were heading the the Christmas markets in Brussels but unfortunately ended up being stuck in folkestone for over 6hrs.

 

[D6130]

Eurostar services were also severely disrupted today due to strike action by some French train crews. My wife and I were booked on the 16 09 from Paris - on our way back from Italy - and on arrival at Gare du Nord, discovered that it had been cancelled. We were then re-booked onto the 20 09 departure and advised to return at about 18 30 to check-in. We were in the departure lounge just before 19 00....but it was absolutely rammed with passengers for the 19 09 departure, which didn't depart until about 20 30. Boarding for the 20 09 was announced a short time later, but we didn't manage to get on before it departed (full) at about 21 05. Unfortunately the last train of the day - at 21 09 - was cancelled. We're now spending the night in a hotel at Eurostar's expense and provisionally booked on the 07 11 departure tomorrow morning. We'll see what happens!

EDIT: 07 35, 01/12/2023: After five hours sleep in a surprisingly clean and comfortable hotel just around the corner from Gare du Nord - courtesy of Eurostar - we're on train ES 9007, 07 11 PAN-STP, which departed on time and is completely full. I have to say that, throughout yesterday's chaos and confusion, all of the Eurostar staff at Gare du Nord were unfailingly friendly, patient and helpful, while working under extreme stress. They sometimes come in for a fair amount of criticism but, on this occasion, they were excellent.

 

[FOH]

A YouTuber with a drone has posted a 49-second video with an aerial view of the stricken train which near the end (at 0:41) shows two Krupp-MaK locos on the London end of it:

Such a shame they couldn't be walked over to the leShuttle terminal

 

[stuu]

There's a road access point right there! How on earth was this allowed to go on for so long? Surely it wouldn't have been impossible to get a ramp and some buses to get the passengers off, in less than 8 hours?

 

[Citybreak1]

Seems Eurostar also cancelled tonight

 

[TFN]

The Eurostar app states:

“We're sorry that we've had to cancel our evening trains on 01 December. That is due to strike action in Calais resulting in the early closure of the the high-speed line we use in Northern France.”

 

[DanielB]

Just happened to see this thread on X by a Dutch Eurostar train manager which describes so of the aftermath of the disruption.

A summary as the thread is in Dutch (though Google Translate probably helps):
The stranded Eurostar 9114 to Amsterdam was supposed to return to London as Eurostar 9157, so a train was missing in Amsterdam. As a replacement a Traxx + ICRmh set from the Amsterdam - Brussels IC-service was used to get the passengers to Brussels and have them board the 9157 there.
Unfortunately, the train was stopped at Noorderkempen due to the train number not being known in Belgium and a new path had to be applied for. Which took that long that passengers changed to the regular Brussels-bound IC which overtook the additional train. This resulted in them arriving too late for the 9157 in Brussels. Some passengers could be accommodated on the 9167, but others spent the night in an hotel and continued their journey the next morning.

 

[popeter45]

Just happened to see this thread on X by a Dutch Eurostar train manager which describes so of the aftermath of the disruption.

A summary as the thread is in Dutch (though Google Translate probably helps):
The stranded Eurostar 9114 to Amsterdam was supposed to return to London as Eurostar 9157, so a train was missing in Amsterdam. As a replacement a Traxx + ICRmh set from the Amsterdam - Brussels IC-service was used to get the passengers to Brussels and have them board the 9157 there.
Unfortunately, the train was stopped at Noorderkempen due to the train number not being known in Belgium and a new path had to be applied for. Which took that long that passengers changed to the regular Brussels-bound IC which overtook the additional train. This resulted in them arriving too late for the 9157 in Brussels. Some passengers could be accommodated on the 9167, but others spent the night in an hotel and continued their journey the next morning.

sounds like this wasnt dont but in theory could have have carried post-check passngers on a ICRmh/ICNG like that so at brussels its just a cross platform transfer?
wonder if that was considered as a idea for the amsterdam shutdown as could allow a shorter platform like platform 1 to be used?

 

[tasky]

There's a road access point right there! How on earth was this allowed to go on for so long? Surely it wouldn't have been impossible to get a ramp and some buses to get the passengers off, in less than 8 hours?

It may be due to border regulations? Isn't a Eurostar carriage an international border because people have already gone through French passport control?

 

[stuu]

It may be due to border regulations? Isn't a Eurostar carriage an international border because people have already gone through French passport control?

A good point, but common sense would surely suggest that some sort of protocol should exist for such circumstances, a train being forced to stop before the tunnel is hardly an unimaginable outcome. Although of course common sense and UK governance have been somewhat at odds for a while, so perhaps it was overlooked

 

[Citybreak1]

Seems another delay again tonight