Eurostar 11hr delay

[westcoaster]

heard about this today, 11hr journey from london to paris and no rail replacement buses included:
from the bbc
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7356283.stm

one heck off a journey suprised there was not a riot on board.

 

[P156KWJ]

hock: woh!!

 

[adambro]

Took a couple of reads through of the article to understand it but indeed, it doesn't sound like fun. However, it is inevitable that problems will occur, the real test of a company is how they deal with them. Eurostar are refunding everyone and offering them a free return ticket, that is pretty impressive in my opinion.

 

[87015]

Full refund, free ticket for another trip and getting six power cars in the book for the price of two, wouldn't bother me too much been a while since been involved in a total and utter farce!

 

[Nico75]

Good morning everybody,

first of all, I apologize for my english which is not excellent (I come from France ) and this is my first message on this forum.

All televisions were on the plateform of Gare du Nord to welcome the passengers who didn't seem to be very happy and a little bit tired after this long night.

Actually, they espacially complained of the heat and of the lack of information : people have been kept in the train, in the dark, without air-conditioning neither information for hours. Some passengers have compared their situation with the one of animals confined in cage ...

But this is not the first time such an incident arrives : a few years ago, an eurostar has spent ... 24 hours between Paris and London !!

All passengers will get a free return ticket but some of them have decided to ask money (1500 € !!) ... but next time, sure they will take the plane !

Beyond the misfortune for the passengers, we saw two Eurostar together (I don't know what is the english for "unité multiple" ). But because of this configuration, the train's speed was limited ... at 60 km/h (instead of ... 300 km/h !!)

In France, this incident has made one of the headline last saturday !

(don't hesitate to correct me if i have done a few mistake )

Nico

 

[westcoaster]

Good morning everybody,

first of all, I apologize for my english which is not excellent (I come from France ) and this is my first message on this forum.

All televisions were on the plateform of Gare du Nord to welcome the passengers who didn't seem to be very happy and a little bit tired after this long night.

Actually, they espacially complained of the heat and of the lack of information : people have been kept in the train, in the dark, without air-conditioning neither information for hours. Some passengers have compared their situation with the one of animals confined in cage ...

But this is not the first time such an incident arrives : a few years ago, an eurostar has spent ... 24 hours between Paris and London !!

All passengers will get a free return ticket but some of them have decided to ask money (1500 € !!) ... but next time, sure they will take the plane !

Beyond the misfortune for the passengers, we saw two Eurostar together (I don't know what is the english for "unité multiple" ). But because of this configuration, the train's speed was limited ... at 60 km/h (instead of ... 300 km/h !!)

In France, this incident has made one of the headline last saturday !

(don't hesitate to correct me if i have done a few mistake )

Nico

first off welcome to the forums.

as said two units together is a multiple unit, long old journey hope the free tickets are for first class.

 

[Mojo]

What about flying? 'Planes are often this late and most scairlines couldn't give two hoots.

 

[Metroland]

PARIS (Reuters) - French state rail operator SNCF said on Monday that a British driver was to blame for a nearly 10-hour delay suffered by passengers on a Eurostar train that normally links London and Paris in 2-1/4 hours.

The delay affected some 640 travellers whose train left London at 8.00 p.m. last Friday.

The driver was actually taking a train from Paris to London the same evening when a signal went off indicating a technical fault, the SNCF said in a statement after holding an inquiry into the reasons for the delay.

"The investigation found one main cause: a diagnostic error by the driver of the faulty Eurostar," it said.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/domes...ws&rpc=401&pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

 

[Nico75]

If they can't bear any more the train, they will take the plane (but they don't know what they lose ).

Mireille Faugère (manager of Voyages France-Europe) has explained that the SNCF couldn't charter as much bus for all those people ...


A survey has been asked for today ... let's see what it will say !

 

[hairyhandedfool]

I don't think the weight of fault should fall on the driver, he made a decision he felt was right given the circumstances. It is very easy, in hindsight, to point fingers, but at the end of the day, he made a decision. Surely the reason for the fault should be in question.

I don't know the ins and outs of a Eurostar (or for that matter many of the modern High speed EMUs) and so I am perhaps ill equipt to judge, but lets suppose the driver of a Pendelino had departed Carlisle, just passed Lockerbie headed for Glasgow and had realised there was a fault developing which could bring the train to rest in an awkward place. If he waits to diagnose the exact fault he would be forced into carring on and entering potential problem area. He is aware of a train headed to Lockerbie which could help if he acts now. So he faces two options:

1) carry on, try to discover the exact nature of the fault, and ask the signaller for a loco to meet it when it fails in the middle of nowhere.

or

2) stop the train, head back to Lockerbie with the other train and hope it makes it.

Not exactly a like for like example but I'm sure it gets my point across.

 

[CosherB]

(don't hesitate to correct me if i have done a few mistake )

Nico

Nico, welcome. - I wish my French was as good as your English!

Best wishes

CS

 

[O L Leigh]

Sounds like an Ilford unit.

It's a little unfair taking a pop at the driver like that. When the excrement has hit the airscrew and you're under the cosh to make a decision, things do ocassionally get missed. However, it is highly unlikely that the driver would have been acting in isolation. I would imagine that his fleet support technician and controller would have been dipping their oars in and making sure that he was following the procedures.

O L Leigh