{"id":663321,"date":"2025-12-30T21:45:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T21:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/663321\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T21:45:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T21:45:44","slug":"travelers-from-london-to-paris-stranded-as-power-problems-stuck-train-shut-down-channel-tunnel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/663321\/","title":{"rendered":"Travelers from London to Paris stranded as power problems, stuck train shut down Channel Tunnel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Power problems and a stuck train interrupted rail services through the undersea\u00a0Channel Tunnel<\/a>\u00a0connecting the United Kingdom and continental Europe on Tuesday, operators said, stranding passengers during the busy end-of-year holidays.<\/p>\n

At Paris\u2019 Gare du Nord station, Jamie and Issy Gill scrambled to find a flight back to the U.K. after their Eurostar train to London was canceled, desperate to be reunited with their baby boy after a getaway in the French capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came for my 30th birthday,\u201d Issy Gill said, wiping away tears.<\/p>\n

Jamie Gill said they\u2019d take a roundabout route back, with a flight via Birmingham on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Eurostar \u2014 which runs passenger trains between London and Paris and other European destinations \u2014 blamed \u201coverhead power supply issues in the Channel Tunnel\u201d and a failure aboard a train operated by LeShuttle, which transports vehicles and their passengers between the ports of Calais, France, and Folkestone, England.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday afternoon, Eurostar said the tunnel was partially reopening but with only one of its two train lines, allowing Eurostar services to resume in the evening \u2014 although with expected continued delays and longer journey times than usual. It advised passengers to rebook their journeys on other days.<\/p>\n

The 50-kilometer (32-mile) Channel Tunnel,\u00a0more than half of it undersea<\/a>, has revolutionized U.K.-Europe rail travel since its inauguration in 1994. But because it\u2019s the only fixed cross-English Channel rail link, train services tend to be vulnerable to severe disruptions.<\/p>\n

The Gare du Nord station heaved with frustrated passengers trying to book plane or bus tickets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disgusted, disheartened,\u201d said Sarah Omouri, a French traveler whose plans to celebrate the New Year in London were dashed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been maybe a year since we\u2019ve had a vacation,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were made to get on the train, to get off, get on again, and get off again. Now we\u2019re told that everything is fully booked for several days. It\u2019s ruined.\u201d<\/p>\n

In London, would-be traveler John Paul had expected to enjoy a romantic river cruise in Paris and a trip to the Eiffel Tower with his partner, Lucy, but their Eurostar got turned back before reaching the continent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got probably about an hour down the track, maybe 40 minutes, and then they basically said the train\u2019s got to stop, because the train ahead got a braking issue,\u201d the 46-year-old Paul said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey kept telling us that the driver was trying to fix the brakes on this other train and that the other trains were then backed up,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no clear information and, obviously, we\u2019ve lost a lot of money, haven\u2019t we?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Channel Tunnel\u2019s operator, Eurotunnel, said that the power supply problem started overnight Monday in part of the tunnel, impacting passenger and vehicle travel by rail in both directions.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Power problems and a stuck train interrupted rail services through the undersea\u00a0Channel Tunnel\u00a0connecting the United Kingdom and continental…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,5006,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-663321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-tourism","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115810711818720846","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}