Channel Tunnel disruption affects Eurostar and vehicle shuttle services between France and England

Audio By Carbonatix

PARIS (AP) — Power problems and a stuck train interrupted rail services through the undersea Channel Tunnel connecting the U.K. and continental Europe on Tuesday, stranding passengers and ruining vacation plans during the busy end-of-year holiday period.

At Paris' 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 enjoying a getaway together in the French capital.

“We came for my 30th birthday and we were supposed to go back on the Eurostar, but everything is canceled,” she said. "We have a 1-year-old at home, with my mum and dad. I'm going to get upset,” she said, wiping away tears.

“It’s a stressful situation,” Jamie Gill said. He said that they'd now have to take a roundabout route back, with a flight via Birmingham on Wednesday.

“It's just, like, the first time we came away without him,” she said.

Eurostar — which runs passenger trains between London and Paris and other European destinations — blamed “overhead power supply issues in the Channel Tunnel” and what it said was a failed train operated by LeShuttle, which transports vehicles and their passengers by rail through the tunnel between the ports of Calais, France, and Folkestone, England.

Eurostar said in a statement that its services “are suspended until further notice," and advised its passengers to rebook their journeys for other days.

In London, disappointed would-be traveler John Paul had been expecting to enjoy a romantic river cruise in Paris and a trip to the Eiffel Tower with his partner Lucy, but their early morning Eurostar got turned back before reaching the continent.

“We got probably about an hour down the track, maybe 40 minutes, and then they basically said the train’s got to stop, because the train ahead got a braking issue,” the 46-year-old Paul said.

“They 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," he said. "There’s no clear information and, obviously, we’ve lost a lot of money, haven’t we?”

“We’ll have to put romance on hold for a while," he said.

The Channel Tunnel's operator, Eurotunnel, said in a separate statement that the power supply problem started overnight Monday in part of the tunnel, impacting both passenger and vehicle travel by rail in both directions through the tunnel.

It said that traffic is expected to resume gradually on Tuesday afternoon.

“A technical intervention is required, which is currently underway,” it said. “Our teams are working to restore the situation as quickly as possible.”

___

John Leicester and Sylvie Corbet in Paris, and Danica Kirka in London, contributed to this report.