Eurostar passengers stranded near Ashford (22/2/2010)

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Some 740 passengers are stuck on a Eurostar train in Kent after it experienced "technical problems".
Eurostar said the Paris to London train was stuck south of Ashford but a rescue train would take passengers to London.
The train was due to leave Gare du Nord at 2043 GMT and arrive in St Pancras at 2159 GMT but was delayed after an unattended bag caused a security alert.
Passenger Alistair Neale said lights in the carriages had failed but the rescue train had arrived at the scene.
Eurostar would not confirm whether the lights had failed or reports that the cab had become detached from the train.
A spokesman said it did not know what had caused the electrically powered train to stop.
He said: "We are investigating what happened fully. The priority at the moment is making sure the passengers are well looked after. As far as we are concerned we have got everything in place."
He added that there was not expected to be any disruption to services later and passengers should check in as normal. He said a later Paris-to-London service successfully bypassed the stranded train.
Richard Startari, who was on the train, said: "Just 10 minutes from Ashford, the Eurostar kind of stopped, at which point we then lost all power. A lot of the Eurostar staff are going up and down with water, but they don't seem to have torches, which is a bit concerning. They're using their iPhones."
Christopher Alonge said the train stopped at about 2245 GMT. He said passengers had been told they would have to board the rescue train coach by coach.
The incident is the latest problem to hit Eurostar in recent months.
Several trains broke down in December when heavy snowfall caused the trains to lose power, leaving the service crippled for three days.
A total of 2,500 passengers were stuck in the tunnel for up to five-and-a-half hours while a further 100,000 were stranded because of the delays.
The firm was subsequently strongly criticised by an independent review which said its contingency plans for helping stranded passengers were "insufficient".
It also raised concerns over the poor conditions for passengers stuck on the trains in the Channel Tunnel.
Carriages lost air conditioning and lighting as a result of the power failure, while sanitary conditions quickly became poor.
Services between the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) and Brussels have also been delayed in the past week following a collision between two Belgian passenger trains on 15 February.

[Mookiemoo]

Is the Euro star fleet now starting to become unhinged - close to 20 years after introduction

[Brucey]

Eurostar would not confirm passengers' claim that lights in the carriages had failed or reports that the power car had become detached from the rest of the train.

Don't Eurostar trains have light sticks at the end of the carriage (like we have on our local trains?)  And aren't Eurostar Class 373s articulated?

[Tim]

Eurostar would not confirm passengers' claim that lights in the carriages had failed or reports that the power car had become detached from the rest of the train.

Don't Eurostar trains have light sticks at the end of the carriage (like we have on our local trains?)  And aren't Eurostar Class 373s articulated?

They do not have light sticks!  They should have.

The rake of coaches is articulated but the powercars do not share bogies.  It would still seem odd for the loco to detact?

The batteries ought to have sufficient power to maintain lights and air con for 2hrs or so.  But according to the report on the 7-train breakdown, not all drivers are capabable of following a technical procedure involving switching the circuits which is required to stop the power draining much faster.
 

[smithy]

Is the Euro star fleet now starting to become unhinged - close to 20 years after introduction

i think the problem is just one of them things,probably just a breakdown that can happen to anything mechanical at any time,before christmas how many times did you hear about breakdowns???

would this particular breakdown been news worthy if it was not for all the trouble at christmas??
i very much doubt it typical media highlighting every problem,remember how they finished off concorde after it returned to service following the paris crash? a defective toilet flush halfway over atlantic would turn in to a major story with reporters camped out at heathrow.

[devon_metro]

Is the Euro star fleet now starting to become unhinged - close to 20 years after introduction

i think the problem is just one of them things,probably just a breakdown that can happen to anything mechanical at any time,before christmas how many times did you hear about breakdowns???

would this particular breakdown been news worthy if it was not for all the trouble at christmas??
i very much doubt it typical media highlighting every problem,remember how they finished off concorde after it returned to service following the paris crash? a defective toilet flush halfway over atlantic would turn in to a major story with reporters camped out at heathrow.

Couldn't agree more, its just just the media jumping on the bandwagon

[Tim]

You are right.  This was just a  breakdown - a minor incident.  But one of the recomendations of the report into the 7-train fiasco was that torches be provided in case the lights go out.  It looks like Eurostar have yet to provide them, so IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion) they deserve at least a little bit of slagging off. 

If FGW^▸ (First Great Western) can justify providing emergency light sticks, then a company with so much tunnel on their route ought to be able to as well.

[smithy]

You are right.  This was just a  breakdown - a minor incident.  But one of the recomendations of the report into the 7-train fiasco was that torches be provided in case the lights go out.  It looks like Eurostar have yet to provide them, so IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion) they deserve at least a little bit of slagging off. 

If FGW^▸ (First Great Western) can justify providing emergency light sticks, then a company with so much tunnel on their route ought to be able to as well.

as it goes i agree with having light sticks but what i am saying is if it were not for the events at xmas this story would never have been,i was also referring to FA's post about the fleet becoming unhinged which i do not think it is.
also i would say you do not work in the rail industry?? one of the recommendations was to provide some sort of back up lighting which they have not done YET do you realise how long it takes to put these sorts of things in to action?

[Timmer]

The media probably have a permenant office based at St Pancras now or someone is paid to watch the departures/arrivals board all day and report when a train is running 5 or more minutes late then they all head down there to get the story from the passengers as they enter the arrivals area.

[JayMac]

The media probably have a permenant office based at St Pancras now or someone is paid to watch the departures/arrivals board all day and report when a train is running 5 or more minutes late then they all head down there to get the story from the passengers as they enter the arrivals area.

Could well be possible. The Grauniad office is but a stones throw from St Pancras.