Tens of thousands of people have been left stranded ahead of New Year’s Eve after Eurostar cancelled all its services due to flooding in a tunnel.
All 41 trains scheduled for Saturday have been cancelled, throwing travel plans into chaos with passengers scrambling to rearrange transport to and from London St Pancras.
Among them are newlyweds Nicole and Christopher Carrera, who said their plans to spend New Year’s Eve in Disneyland Paris have been “ruined”.
One mother has said her family is “trying not to be homeless with children in a cold London night” after the travel chaos upended their stay in the French capital.
Passengers stare at a board of cancellations at the Gare du Nord
(AP)
Luana Andrade, 36, her husband Rondi Oroujo, 32, and their three-year-old son have been stranded in London with six relatives from Brazil, and are facing the prospect of booking an expensive hotel and flights.
Ms Andrade said: “It’s not a trip, it’s a dream trip. So this is really expensive, it’s a big deal for our family because we are from Brazil, so it’s expensive. We planned for months, almost a year, and now probably we don’t get it.”
Flooding in the tunnel at Ebbsfleet, which runs beneath the Thames, has caused cancellations all day after engineers said at 4am that no trains would be able to run on the High Speed 1 line.
While Eurostar, which runs services from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, had hoped services would resume later in the day, the situation failed to improve and all trains have now been cancelled for Saturday.
“Eurostar is extremely sorry for the unforeseen issues affecting customers today but safety remains our No 1 priority,” a spokeswoman said.
Newlywed Nicole Carrera’s Disneyland plans were ruined by Eurostar cancellations
(PA)
“We understand this is a vital time to get home at the end of the festive season and ahead of New Year and we are supporting customers in stations.”
Emotional travellers have been spotted at the Eurostar terminal, with one man seen carrying an iPad which read “Taxi to Paris”.
Among those stranded on the other side of the Channel is The Independent’s Holly Bancroft, who was informed that her 7.11pm train to London had been cancelled and that the next available train was Tuesday evening. As a result, she and thousands of others have been forced to book…
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