Eurostar travel chaos inquiry criticises 'insufficient' support

Friday 12th February 2010

A report into the failures which led to travel chaos for Eurostar passengers over Christmas found help for those stranded was "insufficient".

In the week before Christmas last year, several trains broke down in the Channel Tunnel, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

Eurostar services were cancelled for three days, with the train operator blaming the severe cold and snowy conditions for many of the problems which occurred.

The operator, which runs trains from London to Paris and Brussels, commissioned an independent review into the issues, following the announcement of which today, Eurostar said it would be implementing the recommendations set out – saying "we know that we let our customers down before Christmas and we are very sorry for this".

Eurostar said over the next 18 months it would be investing more than £30 million to improve passenger care during disruption, customer communication both inside and outside the tunnel and the resilience of trains during severe weather conditions.

The researchers behind the report announced today that they believed Eurostar had not sufficiently prepared its trains for extreme weather conditions. Problems initially occurred when fine snow got inside the train's grills before they entered the tunnel, and when this melted it caused the electric's to short-circuit.

The report also highlighted that once the problems had occurred, customer care was dealt with very badly, saying: "Provision of information to passengers in stations, through the call centre and via the website was not satisfactory."

In response to this, Eurostar said it would be opening a 24/7 call centre operating during periods of disruption, regular SMS text messaging and email updates for customers, a more robust contingency plan to draft in extra staff during disruption, and would be appointing a new director of business service continuity to take charge of the implementation of all these changes so they are carried out speedily and effectively.

Richard Brown, chief executive of Eurostar, also said in a statement today: "We welcome the review. We have accepted all of its recommendations and we've committed ourselves to implementing them as soon as we possibly can. I recognise that we let down a considerable number of our passengers very badly with the disruption and breakdowns before Christmas, and, once again, I’d like to say, on behalf of Eurostar, I am very, very sorry for the disruption and for letting down so many passengers.

"I recognise that we need to work very, very hard at Eurostar to regain the confidence of our passengers, and I’d like to assure you that everyone at Eurostar is absolutely committed to taking all of the actions necessary to make sure that the disruption before Christmas never happens again, and that we win back the trust of our passengers." ADNFCR-1783-ID-19612652-ADNFCR

Related News

BA probes suspension of staff who 'intimidated volunteers' - 12/02/10
British Airways has reportedly suspended 15 members of staff after announcing it said it will not tolerate the "intimidation" of employees

FTSE 100 up 0.6 in early trade, buoyed by Rio Tinto and Xstrata - 12/02/10
Britain's leading share index was up 0

Rio Tinto reports rise in full-year profits - 12/02/10
The world's third largest mining company Rio Tinto has reported its net profits rose to $4

EU president says deal reached over Greek debt crisis - 12/02/10
Eurozone leaders have agreed a deal to help Greece tackle its debt crisis, European Council president Herman van Rompuy has said

FTSE 100 registers steady gains in face of BT slump - 11/02/10
The FTSE 100 ended Thursday up over half a per cent, despite BT suffering a serious slump as concerns were raised over its pension fund deficit

<< Back To News Listings

News Article Search

Quick Apply