For some, the Christmas holidays are off to a bad start. All Eurostar trains circulating in the tunnel as well as shuttles transporting cars and trucks are blocked this Thursday, December 21 until further notice, while the first departures have already started for the holidays.
The strike, called by French unions, led to “the complete interruption of service and the closure of our terminals in France and the United Kingdom,” Getlink – Eurotunnel’s parent company – said in a statement. “The union organizations rejected the exceptional bonus of 1,000 euros announced at the end of the year by management and called for a strike to demand a tripling of it,” continued management. Result: no more Eurostar can use the structure and the shuttles carrying cars and trucks are also blocked.
Panic and disorganization
The sudden announcement of the cancellation of afternoon trains to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam from St-Pancras station in London caused panic among passengers, according to an AFP journalist present on site.
The many travelers who were planning to return to France or Belgium for the holidays rushed to their phones to try to change their ticket for the next day, or to quickly book one of the flights still available from the British capital.
Reception and security agents at the station – who seemed just as caught off guard – also had to remove passengers who had already passed security checks and were on the platform, they told travelers in the lobby .
Annoyed travelers
At Gare du Nord in Paris, Eurostar employees announced on a megaphone that all trains for the rest of the day were canceled. “I had made my passport on purpose,” said Catherine, 80, visibly disappointed and upset because she was unable to join her son in London. Travelers at the bottom of the platform, like in London, had their eyes glued to their smartphones to find alternative routes.
The Lille-Europe station was much quieter. Santiago Rodriguez, a Mexican on vacation with his family in Europe, was preparing to find another solution to reach London. “Now we are going to Brussels. It’s horrible to ruin our plans like that,” he told an AFP journalist.
Others were considering more or less complicated journeys like Catherine Leray, who planned with her family to reach Calais, via Lille, by train and then board a ferry to England. The situation was all the more confusing as messages in English suggested a resumption of traffic around 4 p.m. In Calais, at the entrance to the French terminal where cars and trucks board trains to reach Folkestone on the other side of the strait, long lines of vehicles, lasting more than a kilometer, were beginning to form.