Published: December 30, 2023 at 10:46 a.m. ET
Flooding in railway tunnels in southeast England forced the cancellation of all trains linking London to mainland Europe on Saturday, international rail operator Eurostar said, disrupting New Year's holidays for thousands of passengers, the BBC and Portal reported.
Eurostar, which operates services from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, said affected customers were entitled to a full refund or exchange.
Eurostar…
Flooding in railway tunnels in southeast England forced the cancellation of all trains linking London to mainland Europe on Saturday, international rail operator Eurostar said, disrupting New Year's holidays for thousands of passengers, the BBC and Portal reported.
Eurostar, which operates services from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, said affected customers were entitled to a full refund or exchange.
Eurostar had initially canceled 14 trains running on Saturday, but said it had decided to suspend all daytime services – 41 trains in total – as flooding continued.
It was not immediately clear what caused the flooding in the railway tunnels under the River Thames near Ebbsfleet, east of London.
Parts of England have experienced heavy rainfall in recent days and an official warning for strong and gusty winds is in place in southern England.
Television footage showed water pouring into one of the tunnels and covering the tracks as hundreds of stranded passengers waited in the concourse at St Pancras station in London.
“We understand this is an important time to get home at the end of the festive period and before the New Year and we are supporting customers in stations,” Eurostar said in an emailed statement.
It is the second time in ten days that there has been a major disruption to the Eurostar service as French workers stop trains ahead of Christmas in a “last-minute strike”.