Eurostar passengers have been warned to cancel or postpone their journeys this morning as they face major delays, with the operator calling it “total chaos”.
The operator said a cable theft near Lille, France, had caused the severe disruption and last-minute cancellations on the line on Wednesday morning.
Trains had also been delayed or cancelled in both directions between London St Pancras International and Gare Du Nord in Paris on Tuesday evening after two people were struck by trains, with passengers complaining of being delayed for up to seven hours.
With disruption continuing on Wednesday, an alert on the Eurostar website read: “Due to a cable theft near Lille Europe, our trains are likely to be subject to severe delays and last-minute cancellations. We advise you to cancel or postpone your trip.”
Eurostar has so far cancelled three trains each way between London and Paris, with the first three departures between the destinations delayed by an hour. Inbound, the predicted delays range between 80 and 100 minutes. No trains from London to Brussels have so far been cancelled, but delays are expected between 50 and 80 minutes.
One customer on Wednesday morning complained to the operator: “I can not change booking, train yesterday was cancelled and my elderly mother is stuck in Paris,,” to which Eurostar apologised for the ”total chaos due to 2 accidents involving people and a cable theft.”
The disruption on Tuesday came after two people were struck by trains near the city in northern France, which led to delays and cancellations to all Eurostar services on Tuesday evening.
“We advise changing your journey for a different travel date,” the operator said on social media. “Our sincerest apologies to customers affected.”
Passengers took to social media to complain after facing hours of delays about how Eurostar had handled the disruption as photos on social media showed large queues at both railway stations on Tuesday.
One traveller said: “This was handled poorly, little communication, bad announcements for those of us stuck on trains with no food as sold out, no running water and a bad website to file a claim. I will never use this service again after the poor communication and experience.“
Another said: “It’s so sad. But maybe don’t charge 375 euros surge pricing to get a replacement ticket. There were 30 school children on the 19.01 train. And after 2 hours of waiting we were told hotels would be provided and a replacement train. It’s getting worse week by week”.
