Tonight:
9°c
Six-hour ordeal for passengers as the Shuttle breaks down
Sri Carmichael, Consumer Affairs Reporter27.08.09
MORE than 500 passengers were trapped in the Channel Tunnel for six hours when the Shuttle broke down.
Temperatures hit 30C after the power failed, shutting off air conditioning and lights. The lavatories stopped working and bottled water ran out. Passengers said Eurotunnel failed to give any information about how they were going to get out. Some passed out and others had asthma attacks due to stress.
They were rescued at 2.30am yesterday. Services in both directions were halted and about 3,000 people had journeys delayed. Arthur Davis, 69, from Chelmer Village, Essex, who was on the 7.50pm Calais to Folkestone train, said: "It was a shambles." Eurotunnel has offered refunds.
Reader views (1)
My wife, 16 year old daughter and her friend were in carriage 17, the first of the car carriages on this particular train. It is with great relief that the world is not reading a major disaster under the channel tunnel, instead of a very uncomfortable and incompetent mess. With a complete failure in the communications of the train, so that there was no PA system and eventually no ability for the staff on the train to communicate with each other or the driver as their batteries to their walkie talkies failed, we were fortunate that the situation did not deteriorate further. With no means of warning the passengers of any impending danger other than by travelling through the carriages to physically communicate with passengers, the lives of both the passengers and staff were put at serious risk should a fire have developed as doubtless panic would have ensued. This was confirmed to me by a member of staff, who had been speaking to the fire services that had entered the train from the emergency tunnel, both of whom were extremely concerned by the inability to communicate with the passengers. In short there are serious flaws in the safety of the passengers on the Eurotunnel that need to be addressed, nevermind the simple question as to why it took Eurotunnel 5.5 hours to get an engine to pull us out of the last third of the tunnel!
- Richard, London
