A sudden strike at Eurotunnel caused many Eurostar trains to be canceled on Thursday. The strike was about a dispute over end-of-year bonuses. Now, the strike has ended, and Eurostar will slowly start running trains again.
Eurostar Strike Ends, Services to Resume
In a surprising turn of events, Eurostar, the fast train service that connects London, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam, faced a big problem on Thursday. Many of its trains were canceled because of a strike at Eurotunnel. This tunnel is the undersea rail link between the UK and France. The strike was unexpected and happened right during the busy Christmas travel time.
According to CNN, the reason behind this strike was a disagreement over year-end bonuses. Eurotunnel, the company that runs the tunnel, had offered a bonus of 1,000 euros. But the workers' unions didn't agree with this amount. They wanted the bonus to be three times higher. This disagreement led to the strike, which stopped all train services through the tunnel. It even closed the terminals in both France and the UK.
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However, the strike has now ended. Eurotunnel shared that they reached an agreement with the unions. Thanks to this, Eurostar will be able to start running its trains again, but it will take some time to get back to normal.
French transport minister Clement Beaune was involved in solving this issue. He posted on X (formerly known as Twitter), welcoming the agreement. He had earlier said that the strike was a big problem and must be solved quickly.
Now, as Eurostar gets ready to restart its services, passengers who had to change their plans can look forward to traveling again. This is especially important as many people are traveling for the holidays.
Eurostar Train Delay Causes Chaos for Passengers
A Eurostar train with 700 people on board got stuck for more than seven hours due to a power outage. The incident, which happened on Nov. 30, caused big problems for passengers, including one woman who missed her daughter's graduation.
Karen Cherpin from Whitstable, England, shared her experience with The Guardian. She was traveling to Amsterdam for her daughter's university graduation when the train stopped just outside the English Channel tunnel. At first, passengers were told the delay was for tunnel permission. But soon, it became clear there was a more serious issue.
The Business Insider reported that the train lost electricity, leaving everyone without heat, food, or much water. Toilets stopped working and began overflowing as passengers had no choice but to keep using them. As the hours passed, the situation worsened, with people even using trash cans as toilets.
Eurostar, in a statement on X, said they couldn't talk to passengers during the outage and apologized. Jessica Chambers, another passenger from Essex, told BBC that it felt like an emergency with no staff communication.
The train finally returned to London, and Cherpin missed her daughter's graduation. She expressed her disappointment, saying the situation wasn't handled well.
This incident adds to a series of delays faced by UK train passengers in recent years due to old infrastructure, power failures, lack of staff, and strikes.
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