Eurostar travel chaos as hundreds of passengers stuck in the Channel Tunnel for nearly three hours

27 December 2024, 13:25 | Updated: 27 December 2024, 13:47

Chaos struck the Eurostar today as hundreds of passengers had to be evacuated from a train after it became stuck in the Channel Tunnel.

On one of the busiest travel days of the year, around 800 passengers were stuck in the tunnel for several hours before being evacuated to Calais.

The train had been making its way to Paris when it broke down, with one disgruntled traveller telling the Independent they were expected to arrive in the French capital four and a half hours late.

Writing on social media, Eurostar said the train had suffered a "technical issue."

It added: "Service update: Train 9080 had a technical issue this morning.

Read more: Brits brace for 'wet and windy' New Year's Eve as some parts of UK to be hit with snow

"This train is now running at reduced speed to Calais where passengers will be transferred to another Eurostar train to continue their journey to Paris. Thank you for your understanding and our apologies for the delay."

While LeShuttle added: “The technical issue with a Eurostar train in the Tunnel has been resolved. Services are now operating normally.

"LeShuttle services may still experience some delays as we return to full capacity. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank our customers for their patience."

Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, this morning, freelance journalist Gaby Koppel said: "I'm on the first @EurostarUK train out of London heading for Paris. We've been stationary in the tunnel for 2hrs now, and have been told that we'll be going again in 15 minutes."

Later, she wrote: "#Eurostarchaos just leaving Lille. It is now six and a half hours since we left London and we haven't reached Paris yet. I've missed my rendezvous house with the surrealism exhibition at @CentrePompidou but have had a pretty surreal train journey instead."

Another fuming passenger wrote: “What a mess. We were trapped for hours and hours in a tunnel. No idea of when we were go get out.

Another fuming passenger wrote: “What a mess. We were trapped for hours and hours in a tunnel. No idea of when we were go get out.

“Now transferred to another train and literally missing out entire day in Paris. Do better Eurostar. Communicate with your paying customers.”

The train is expected to arrive at 3:20pm rather than its original arrival time of 9:20am.

Trains across London St Pancras are running between 30 and 70 minutes delayed today, as thousands travel ahead of the New Year.