Eurotunnel has issued the following press release, clearly attempting to distance itself from the Eurostar debacle:
EUROTUNNEL RESCUES EUROSTAR
Overnight from Friday 18 to Saturday 19 December Eurotunnel staff went to the assistance of 5 Eurostar trains which had broken down in the Channel Tunnel, following technical failures. These incidents were in no way due to the Tunnel infrastructure.
Eurotunnel staff:
• Rescued 5 Eurostar trains which had lost traction
• Evacuated 1,364 Eurostar passengers and brought them to the surface in Folkestone, Kent using their own trains, where they were able to continue their journey to London
• Towed 2 Eurostars to St Pancras as Eurostar did not have the means to do so themselves*
(snip)
* "Eurotunnel locomotives and Shuttles are prepared and maintained so that they are not
affected by rapid temperature changes."
http://www.eurotunnel.com/NR/rdonlyres/E69E8275-E4E9-4B65-AC6A-D5A8E9931DD7/0/091219Eurotunnel_rescues_Eurostar.pdf
Viewed from my own perspective as a ferryman, I find the extraordinary delay in releasing all these passengers from their trains stranded in a 31 mile long tunnel complex underneath the Dover Strait as completely inexplicable. If these trains were ferries, then the MCA would have prohibited them from sailing again until such time as they had demonstrated that their safety procedures and staff numbers and training were fit for purpose. Indeed, the "Norman Voyager," on charter to Celtic Link, was prevented from sailing from Portsmouth for just that reason a week or two ago.
There are usually two or three trains passing through each running tunnel at any time, with a safe distance between them. The Eurostars usually go through in flights of two or three as they are slightly faster than the shuttles and this procedure uses less paths than interleaving them with the shuttles. I believe that the leading one did not break down until it was over the UK side so the others may already have entered the tunnel. It is also possible that the following trains were allowed in on the basis that they could swap to the other running tunnel at one of the crossovers. That they themselves thereupon broke down would have precluded this.
The problem appears to have been due to snow accumulating underneath the trains. On entering the much warmer and more humid tunnel, the snow melted and condensation formed and affected what has variously been described as the batteries or the "operating systems" underneath the trains. Eurostar is presently testing modifications which it hopes will prevent whatever the problem actually is from recurring. As stated earlier, this problem has been experienced before in severe winters and it is puzzling that they seem to have done nothing about it. There are long railway tunnels through the Alps which manage to keep functioning in the same conditions.
The lack of communication with all the passengers stranded for so many hours is inexcusable. There is no problem whatsover with radio communications in the tunnels, as Terry says it is a simple matter of a leaky feeder or other standard technical solution. However, Eurostar is only one of four services using the tunnel and communications are via the Eurotunnel system. That Eurostar appears not to have the additional ability to communicate directly with their trains without passing messages through the Eurotunnel system seems extraordinary. In a situation like this, it is absolutely imperative that the passengers are kept fully informed and the obvious way to accomplish this is directly through the train crew.
Eurotunnel has five diesel locomotives on standby to rescue any stranded trains in the tunnels. Why there should have been such an incredible delay before these started pulling the trains out will become clear in due course. Had this been expedited then there would have been no problem with unbearable heat developing, lights going out, or food and water running out. Also, the service tunnel exists to evacuate passengers into, and from thence into trains in the other running tunnel. This was eventually done with two of the stranded trains. Possibly the reason for the delay in doing this was that in normal circumstances it is safest to leave the passengers onboard their trains and that they anticipated getting the diesel locos to them earlier than they did. Incidentally, on the surface railways, these diesel rescue engines are known as Thunderbirds as the ones which Virgin has stationed at various points on their network are all named after characters from the TV series!
It may not have helped that the seventy British Eurostar drivers were all out on strike. It is anticipated that the British portion of Eurostar will be sold to the Germans next year. Perhaps we may thereupon see a bit of Teutonic efficiency creeping in. Eurotunnel has been a completely French organisation as of a year or two ago, in line with the foreign ownership of most of our other transport links since privatisation - airports, seaports, and increasingly our railways.
