About 700 passengers on a Eurostar train were left in the lurch after an overhead cable mishap plunged their journey into turmoil. What should have been a routine trip from London to Amsterdam turned into a nightmare, with travelers stuck for over seven hours without power, food, or functioning toilets.
The chaos unfolded when the 08:16 GMT train encountered a snag at the Channel Tunnel entrance near Folkestone. The collision with an overhead cable left the train powerless, leading to a complete breakdown in communication between staff and passengers.
Jessica Chambers, one of the stranded passengers, described the situation as an emergency, with little to no information coming from the train crew. As daylight turned into darkness due to the power outage, the discomfort for passengers only increased.
“It truly feels like an emergency situation but there’s no communication from staff,” Chambers told BBC.
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Eurostar officials cited safety protocols and complications with the train’s position as reasons for the prolonged wait before any movement could be made.
In the statement released on X, Eurostar said it was impossible to make announcements to the customers due to a lack of power on board.
“Following a complicated situation due to the position of the train and the track infrastructure, it’s meant that certain safety procedures had to be adhered to before we could move the train,” Eurostar announced.
Without electricity, coupled with the fact that the toilets on board became unusable, passengers experienced distress and unsanitary conditions. Some of them were Rebecca Morris and her group, who were in the train and left without food and forced to endure freezing temperatures inside the immobilized train. As they wait impatiently inside the train, they also dashed their plans to visit the Brussels Christmas markets.
