From Nigel Harris' (editor of
RAIL magazine) blog on
railmagazine.comI rarely get angry on other peoples behalf but Emma's story made my blood boil. Shame on you Eurostar. Apologies for the rather large post but I felt the blog entry needed to be quoted in full:
The shame of Eurostar & Eurotunnel ^ Saturday January 9 2010
This blog is intended to be read in conjunction with my Comment and News coverage in RAIL 635, about the traumatic experience which Eurostar and Eurotunnel inflicted on their customers over three days, December 19-21.
The failure of the five Eurostar trains in the Channel Tunnel on the evening of December 18 was bad enough and the sequence of events has been well chronicled in both general and specialist media. I don^t intend to repeat that chapter of cock-ups again here, nor do I intend to pick apart the cack-handed rescue/recovery operation, botched media response and other incompetence which was writ large throughout this ghastly chapter of events.
Managers far removed from the front line seem to have no conception of the misery they impose on ordinary folk when they get it wrong, or dither, or are risk averse in getting things moving when it goes horribly wrong. Is it because many of them today have not ^come up through the ranks^ and are therefore managing a product they cannot see and have not had to deliver personally themselves?
I plead guilty to this charge myself. in the aftermath of an incident or accident, offering lots of specialist media comment, I too can get so wrapped up in talk of signals and track, motors, snow or human error, or whatever it^s about, that I also fail to really relate to (or sometimes even consider) in any detail what the passengers have gone through on the front line. That^s wrong ^ they are the most important people.
We all say we care and I^m sure, in our own ways, we do. But a bit of help and a cold water reality check don^t hurt once in a while - and so I urge everyone browsing here to read this excellent account, by wife and mum Emma Powney, of the 17 hours she spent in Eurostar^s and Eurotunnel^s ^care^ on the evening of December 18.
It certainly put the events of December 18 into sharp focus for me. I have no doubt it will do likewise for anyone involved with today^s railway for Emma makes painfully clear what misery and trauma this industry is capable if inflicting those who pay so handsomely to make it all possible. And what^s worse is not so much the breakdowns ^ it^s the cack-handed, incompetent and seemingly uncaring way in which passengers were overlooked, herded around, ignored, forgotten and shamefully treated afterwards.
I defy anyone who has anything to do with the railway not to hang their heads in shame or grind their teeth in fury (or both) at Emma^s simple tale of the appalling experience inflicted on her family (and hundreds of others) by the railway.
Here^s her story:
^We boarded the Eurostar after our first delay on Friday night at 6.30pm from Disneyland. It wasn^t too long into the journey that our train stopped after a couple of loud bangs from outside. By 10.00pm we had sat in the tunnel and been given very little info on what our predicament was, all except that a broken-down train was stopping our way from proceeding and that it would be 10 minutes until we got going again. Now, we should have been home already, so people are starting to get a tad irritated.
^An instruction from the tannoy tells us that the train is going to power down and that the lights will go off for a short time. So the lights go off and the kids have already been told to sit down a million times since we left, and are getting tired and restless.
^The train starts to get hot. Really hot. An argument breaks out at one end of our carriage between a group of adults that turns nasty. At the other end, a passenger is trying to force the doors open so we can get some air. The lights go on for a brief time, only to go off again, so adding to the already difficult situation.
A paramedic comes though and brings out a lady who is suffering badly, being claustrophobic. Kids have been stripped to their nappies and underwear, and what water we had is being shared between them all.
^The passenger working on the door finally gets it open, and a trickle of people jump the large gap between the train and the tunnel walkway. A girl starts hyperventilating and has to be taken to sit on the tunnel side. She is with her grandma who has another granddaughter asleep further down the carriage, so we assure her that while she checks on the sleeping one we will take care of the hyperventilating one.
^While this is going on the adults have reached breaking point at the end of our carriage and have kicked-off. My children are tired and crying, as it is so hot. Another toddler with his Dad is very quiet and is brought to the doors to try and cool down, although it was just as hot, if not hotter, in the tunnel. The little boy vomits everywhere and the dad is understandably shaky. Another lady, with her child wearing just a nappy, bursts into tears and gets hysterical, so I have a go at calming her down. My eldest son (5) has clearly had enough and sobs uncontrollably.
^Still no communication from Eurostar. We are still sitting/puking/walking/ crying/hyperventilating - all in the dark. Then ^Dave^ from Essex police pipes up over the tannoy that it^s not safe to open the doors or get out. Sorry Dave, no option there, the restless have already done it!
^Finally, after a confusing period of time, we are told to gather ourselves and get off the train. Do we take our luggage, or leave it? Don^t know, as we are not told. So we gather ourselves up, dress the sweating kids in all their winter gear and we all get off the train, two tired kids, and all our luggage, crossing over the very large gap and we wait on the tunnel side for further instructions.
^We hope we have all our belongings, but we don^t know for sure because we couldn^t see anything in the dark. Also, may I add, there was no help from Eurostar staff in getting our stuff off the train or carrying it along the small walkway, with the two tired kids and all our further holiday shopping. We had to rely on strangers - very kind strangers - who saw we were struggling.
^But where do we go? We haven^t been told. A passenger tells us that we are to walk along the tunnel and follow the stream of other passengers, but this is easier said than done in an already stressful situation.
^After negotiating the tunnel walkway we cross over an intermediate tunnel with a van in it and are told by a passenger (not a member of staff) to board the train in the furthest tunnel, even though it normally only takes vehicles. So, we all board and find a place to dump our stuff.
^This train is mighty filthy, as you can imagine. It^s just for cars and the floor is wet. There^s still no communication from Eurostar. By this time it^s knocking on for 3am! Finally, my kids fall asleep through pure exhaustion. I have to use the blankets we bought at Disney to lay on the wet, filthy floor, so they could sleep. After an hour we are still sitting aboard the car train, and another argument breaks out.
^Finally we are told conflicting statements! One is that we will be going back to Calais to stay in a hotel and be given food. Another that we will be taken to Folkestone aboard the car train and there we will be transferred to a Eurostar train (is this so that to the outside world it appears that we made the journey by that train, with seats, rather than the car train on which we had to sleep on the dirtry, wet floor?) ^ and be taken to London. We, along with many others, weren^t heading for London, but Ashford, so that caused a row and more rioting broke out!
^Finally, around 4am, I lost it - and it all got too much. Looking at my kids being forced to sleep on the floor, exhausted and knackered, I had a "moment" before trying to calm down. After more hours of waiting we finally arrive at Folkestone. So we all get up and wake our kids up ^ but my eldest is sobbing as he is so tired, falls over, cries some more. Exhausted, filthy, cold, tired, laden with luggage and two sleeping kids, we wait patiently to try and get off the train.
^Another riot breaks out and in the row I hear a frantic mum pleading with a French worker. Another mum explains her son is now in need of medical attention; yet another explains that her baby has no more formula milk. A gentleman asks the workers to please sort out the disgusting toilets as his child needs to use them - they can^t, so the poor lad wees on the floor in front of a crowd of people. Another lady shoves a Eurotunnel worker and that^s when I called the police. The police assured me that they were on their way. It started to get really out of hand. Passengers begging to be let off the train, only to be told ^no.^
After another two hours we are finally allowed off and have been assured that a proper Eurostar train is waiting for us. Well great, it is, but it^s locked and the crew to operate it isn^t there, so all the kids that have been woken up fall back asleep, only to have to be woken again to stand in the snow waiting to get on the locked/unmanned Eurostar.
While we queue we are told this train is not going to Ashford, which causes a lady behind me to ^lose it^ with a police officer. She is threatened with being arrested and I feel for her as at this point we have been awake and travelled for 14 hours. I start crying as again this is just so traumatic, and I find an English police officer and practically beg him to tell me anything he knows. He shows great compassion and I finally felt a bit more human again.
We all get the news we want that the train will stop at Ashford. It^s 8am and we board the train, only to sit there for another hour to be told nothing. We then imagine it can only be a 20-minute journey to Ashford. A group walks in to our carriage and starts banging on the driver^s door, demanding information. It^s been 16 hours and we have been offered a pain au chocolat, the kids are inconsolable; we are at the end of our tether.
The train, after much stop-starting, gets us into Ashford at around 10am - two hours from getting into Folkestone. I felt like kissing the damn platform. Going through the station a tannoy announced that the barriers are up on the car park, so we don^t have to pay! "Oh wow" (clean version) we say, what generosity.
We are handed a sticker with the number of the Eurostar complaints/customer services to call, as there^s no chance to get the desk, and anyway we just need to get our kids home and back to some normality, a clean bed and a clean nappy, as we ran out of those 16 hours ago!
A further hour later we are home - THANK GOODNESS.
I can honestly say that there has been no apology, there^s been a "we understand your situation" - but no formal ^sorry.^ The complete lack of communication was unbelievable. We were treated worse than transporting cattle - I^m sure at the very least they would have been fed.
I can appreciate that this is an odd situation, but surely a large company like Eurostar would have had some form of contingency plan, some kind of procedure to follow. All we had was a very frightened French Eurostar worker who was shaking so much that he was of no use, too afraid of the passengers that had been held in for too long. I felt for him.
I can only thank the people that helped us throughout this ordeal: the group of Scottish ladies with their children, the gent who kindly gave us nappies, the young ^uni^ lot who ran around getting us water, and most of all Darren, Stacey and Milly who helped us with our luggage, our kids and me when I finally went mental at a French worker.^
How can the railway be so badly organised to inflict such cruelty ^ for that^s what this was ^ on its customers? Although there are clearly issues about the breakdowns themselves (along with many engineers, I remain sceptical about the reasons being given for the failures) I find myself angrier about the clear lack of an emergency plan afterwards ^ or the fact that it was so badly rehearsed as to have been virtually useless.
Like Emma, I really feel for the solitary member of Eurostar staff, alone on a train of maybe 700 panicking passengers, who probably had no information himself, given that Eurostar seemingly cannot talk to its own staff in the tunnel. All communications, it seems, are through Eurotunnel. That sole member of Eurostar staff must have been not so much as terrified as, rather terrified OF the increasingly distressed, angry and panicking passengers.
Why does it take five or six HOURS to get a train out of the tunnel? And if it has to stay there so long, there^s a perfectly good service tunnel through which specialised vehicles can travel, why can^t extra, specially^trained staff to assist and reassure be quickly put aboard? Likewise water, and food?
If the problems ARE so bad as to require the train to sit there for the equivalent of a working day, why not use the service tunnel to get food, water and maybe emergency power aboard for the hotel facilities? Why do they just have to be left to nearly suffocate in soaring temperatures and airlessness?
Why were passengers made to traipse around like refugees, lugging their own luggage?
Why aren^t there a pair of Class 92s (God knows there are enough of them lying around) on Thunderbird duty at each end of the Tunnel, ready to go at a moment^s notice?
Why did Eurotunnel take the moronic view that this was a ^technical breakdown^ and not an emergency?
Why couldn^t the most basic things be done properly or even done at all?
The questions just go on^ and on^and on^.
And what explanations have we had?
Boiling it down, it goes like this:
Eurotunnel blames Eurostar.
Eurostar blames ^unique^ snow, which it says ^has never been seen before^, for which it says it cannot be expected to have been prepared.
Chris Garnett^s independent report must make sense of this shambles ^ otherwise his own top-notch reputation will be tarnished by this masterclass in incompetence from Eurostar and Eurotunnel.
Here^s one suggestion, Chris, for after the important big recommendations are made. Why not ask Emma if her account can be made available as part of the mandatory training for anyone who has anything to do with Eurotunnel and Eurostar?
Better still, ask her and some of the others she says shared her family^s ordeal to stand up in front of these ^managers^ and have them tell those who failed them so badly just what misery their dithering and failings put them through. Eye to eye.
Unless managers who have to deal with these incidents understand ^ properly - what these people really went through, they might just act too slowly again next time trains break down in the tunnel.
Because we all know it will happen. But there^s no excuse not to be prepared.
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