Burned section of freight train removed from Eurotunnel
Ferry Online Travel News 06/10/2008
The section of the freight train burned in the Channel tunnel blaze last month has been hauled from the site.
Approximately 130 metres in length of the damaged train was removed from the tunnel, leaving another 800 metres to be removed as the work on the tunnel continues.
The 11 September blaze in the Eurotunnel started on a lorry carried by the freight train, which caused other heavy-goods vehicles on the shuttle to burn as well, leading to severe damage to the north-bound tunnel.
The locomotive and the club car on the train did not catch fire. A number of the lorry drivers were in the club car when the fire broke out.
Before the blaze was extinguished by fire fighters from France and England, it burned for over 16 hours, leaving train passengers with no service through the Eurotunnel. Staff and lorry drivers on the freight shuttle, 32 in all, were evacuated from the tunnel, and six were taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
The north tunnel was completely shut down as a result of the fire, causing many service cancellations and delays on other services that resumed during the past few weeks. Part of the northbound tunnel was later re-opened, and trains have been shunted to the south tunnel.
Eurostar train service through the tunnel is now nearly at full capacity, including those trains connecting London with Brussels and Paris.
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