Eurostar timetable not restored until spring
Ferry Online Travel News 04/12/2008
Eurostar passengers won’t see the operator’s full timetable in operation until after the winter.
The northbound tunnel under the English Channel was severely damaged by a fire in September and will not be fully open for use again until the end of February 2009.
Even at that point Eurostar will still require several weeks for the introduction of its new timetable of services that will connect Paris with London in two hours 15 minutes.
The disruption in services followed the September blaze that broke out in a lorry on a freight train in the tunnel. A section of the northbound tunnel is still closed.
Since it has been partially reopened, trains have to operate at slower speeds under the Channel, at speeds of around 60mph, adding about 20 minutes to the trip.
Eurostar and Eurotunnel shuttles are permitted to travel in the tunnel in groups of three. What this means is that some services experience further delays, as they are held back at the tunnel entrance waiting for a slot to become available.
Eurostar has said that the disruptions, particularly in the period immediately following the fire, lost the rail operator 100,000 passengers or more.
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