Swiss Railways train in Zurich Station
At the end of the 2023 Xmas & New Year holiday period, the Eurostar service to and from London St Pancras was cancelled for the best part of a day. These incidents both occurred during the busiest time of year: – one just before the Xmas holiday and the other just before the New Year Holiday. Several thousand people were left stranded and had their holiday travel plans ruined. In both cases, we have to ask – are Eurostar maintaining their trains in a good condition and are HS1 looking after the infrastructure? We also have to ask them both why it took so long to get services back to normal and rescue passengers from a stranded train?
One morning, a few days before Xmas, the overhead wires came down on an outbound Eurostar while it was approaching the channel tunnel near Folkestone. Passengers were trapped in the train for almost 7 hours, before it was rescued and taken back to St Pancras. Q1: Why does it take so long to attach another locomotive to pull the broken-down train to the nearest suitable station? Q2: Are they trying to save money by not paying for a stand-by locomotive which could rescue the train? Q3 Why were Eurostar and HS1 unable to keep passengers better informed and supply them better with refreshments?
Then, early one morning, a few days before New Years Eve, both tunnels where the line crosses under the Thames were completely flooded. This blocked both lines for the rest of the day. This time, at least, trains were cancelled before any of them got stuck on the track. While the cause of the flooding, is still not clear, it is understood that the fire alarm system may have turned on an emergency water supply designed to put out fires in the tunnel. Q4: Why were both tunnels flooded at the same time? Q5: Are HS1 maintaining their infrastructure adequately, given the very high track access charges paid by Eurostar?
COULD STRATFORD, ASHFORD & EBBSFLEET BE PLACED ON STANDBY & OPENED UP DURING EMERGENCIES ?
These are 3 the empty stations between London and the Channel Tunnel that could be used by Eurostar in an emergency. Surely, staff could be re-deployed to one or more of these stations so that trains can be brought back to a better place. Passengers could then be more easily looked after, provided with refreshments and alternative transport options.
WITH 2 RECENT MAJOR INFRASTRUCTURE FAILURES, BOTH HS1 AND EUROSTAR NEED BETTER CONTINGENCY PLANS
I recall that Eurotunnel acquired diesel locos to haul failed Eurostars or shuttles out of the tunnels. But of course they would have been of no use in either of these two failure incidents. Eurostar sets have their own foolish inbuilt lack of flexibility, There is no alternative route available in and out of St Pancras. The trains cannot run to any other London terminal, as they are far too long to fit any other platforms, the third rail power shoes were removed and even the viaduct at Vauxhall is no longer available. In any case Eurostar is incapable of providing adequate security and border controls at any other station. Ebbsfleet terminal is tiny, and Ashford would struggle to cope with two or three thousand passengers, every hour or so, even if the security check was omitted on a temporary basis, as border controls would ensure huge queues and no booths for inspection. In these two incidents the SE HS trains could not run either, so the routes to Ashford would have to have been from Victoria, London Bridge or Charing Cross to Ashford via classic line services via Tonbridge or Maidstone. As usual Eurostar’s contingency plans were utterly hopeless. Ian McDonald
I passed the failed train at around 13.30. It was not on the mainline by then and it had two diesel engines attached to the rear. Eurostar seems to treat its passengers as commodities not people. Everyone on that train wanted to go forward to their European destination not back to London. A recovery plan from an incident like that needs to recognise that. Once made safe the train could have been hauled back to Ashford. Meanwhile a replacement train could have been brought to Ashford and passengers would have a cross platform change of train.
The ingress of water in the Thames tunnel would be more difficult to implement a recovery plan. As my namesake says there would be too many passsengers and trains to use Ebbsfleet as a terminal for all trains. However a way needs to be found to do something. Maybe turning 50% at Ebbsfleet and 50% at Ashford with the SouthEastern service from Ashford to London via Tonbridge and Maidstone strengthened
Both these incidents are strong arguments for the immediate re-opening of both Ebbsfleet and Ashford.
Ian Ring