What is your advice to travellers?
The strong advice we are giving is: if it is not essential to travel over the Christmas holiday, please either refund your ticket at no cost or you can exchange your ticket in the next two months to travel at a later date.
For those customers wanting to travel please look at eurostar.com which has the latest information.
As of today we have run two test trains, we hope this evening to announce the resumption of service. Clearly our number one priority is to get the maximum number of people back to London, Paris, or Brussels so that people can be with their loved ones and families for Christmas.
How should people exchange their tickets?
We’re allowing exchanges to take place for up to two months, so there’s absolutely no need to do that before Christmas, you can exchange any time in the next two months. If you look on Eurostar.com it tells you how to do that, please do that at your leisure.
What compensation are you offering?
For anyone who is not able to travel at the moment, we are refunding all reasonable expenses, so things like, for example, hotel accommodation, taxis, phone calls home. If you look at Eurostar.com there’s a section on there about our compensation policy that explains what’s on offer. I do want to apologise to the people that have been so disrupted by this cessation of service.
Can you let us know what happened? Will there be an enquiry?
Just to put it in a bit of context, on Friday night five trains got stuck in the channel tunnel. That’s the first time that has happened in Eurostar’s history, and we’ve run something like 250,000 trains in the last 15 years.
What’s become very clear to us is that, whilst safety was never compromised- which was always the number one priority – the feedback we’ve had from customers who experienced the evacuation of trains in the tunnel, is that it was really far, far from satisfactory.
So, the Eurostar board took the decision yesterday to instigate an independent enquiry. We’ve asked Chris Garnett who’s the ex Chief Executive of GNER and a former Commercial Director of Eurotunnel, and Claude Gressier, Inspecteur Général des Ponts et Chaussées in France, to manage this independent enquiry on behalf, really to get to the absolute bottom of what went wrong. So they will be interviewing staff, customers on trains, and obviously going through the procedures that Eurotunnel operates within the tunnel, and how communication took place between Eurostar and Eurotunnel.
So we are definitely listening to all the feedback we are getting from customers, we have staff in all the terminals, we have a regular feedback mechanism there, we have management volunteering in each of the terminals, and we’re also looking at everything that’s coming through the web and social media to make sure we are getting direct feedback and understanding how people are feeling at all times.
Please find details of Eurostar’s compensation policy here.
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I don’t want compensation, I want to spend Christmas with my family! We still have no information about how seats will be allocated except some vague and contradictory comments on this site…
Absolutely! Although we can all understand the weather conditions, and that rubbish happens, I just cannot understand how and who is dealing with informing travelers! I have sent countless emails and kept a close eye on the website and twitter, yet I have no idea if i should just show up at the station tomorrow, and expect to get lucky?! This is extremely stressful and devastating news for me and my family! And btw, I recieved a Eurostar email at lunch time today saying ‘make the most of our xmas offers and visit paris for £69′! Beautiful timing! Please recruit a better team.
@ AB We will have an update at 6pm this evening with information about services running this week
@ LG As mentioned to AB we will be posting an update at 6pm in regards to services for this week.
We sincerely apologise for the email newsletter that you received the this morning. These were sent out on Friday before the disruption but due to delays with individuals service providers some people are receiving the email a few days later than scheduled
Please find the latest update announced at 6pm:
UPDATE: Eurostar trains will resume Tuesday, full details & traveller info here: http://bit.ly/8b5y2p
I’d like a clear answer from Mr. Mercer about what he considers “reasonable expenses” to be. I’ve cooperated with Eurostar advice by making alternative travel arrangements, and it’s cost me nigh on 500 euros. Does he consider that a reasonable price to pay to spend Christmas with my nephews, whom I see once a year, and my mother, who is elderly and in poor health?
I would also like a guarantee that both the outward and return flights will be reimbursed, as in the total absence of any information from Eurostar as to when normal service would be resumed, I booked a return flight, thinking that this may well help to ease ongoing congestion after Christmas.
It seems to me that Eurostar are not fit to run a train service at the present time
1)Do Eurostar operate a private communications system within the tunnel to summon help in case of emergency. The only thing I have noticed whilst on board is a set of back to back personal radios? This is a necessity to my knowledge ALL other transportation companies have these tools
2)Do all operational Eurostar staff receive Emergency Evacuation training that is refreshed at least every 12 months? There is media reports that an off duty police officer assumed this responsibility as other staff went AWOL
3)Is there at least 2 HSE approved First Aiders which are able to provide basic CPR and First Aid Skills, unless there is a reason it should be mandatory for all Train Managers. When an major incident occurs patients can be triaged/treated properly. Of course you would need the appropriate kit which needs replacing periodically. Eurostar could even install Automated External Defib’s on their trains which would provide reassurance to its customers?
4)In case of a power and battery backup failure there should be an emergency flashlights available in EVERY train car
5)Why are Eurostar unable to think outside of the box for providing innovative ideas into getting their customers from A-B, were any other train engines able to haul the trains through the tunnel as it appears that local train services were running normally in England and France, If this wasn’t Eurostar could of arranged flights/other train services/coaches to get their customers at least 2/3rds of the way to their destination. By providing alternatives Eurostar would still have some decent PR, instead the company and its branding is suffering a continuing assault by the worlds media.
It would be reassuring if these questions could be answered
Thanks
Simon
Sarah, I would appreciate a reply to Susan’s question. I was advised by Eurostar staff to make alternative travel arrangements which I have done and now, like Susan, I have spent 500 euros to get back to the UK because I consider, yes, actually my travel is “essential.”
Also, can you inform people as to whether there is a reciprocal arrangement with rail companies in the UK as there is with the SNCF in France… i.e. can people use their reserved seats on South West trains to travel on another date because their Eurostar was cancelled?
A swift reply would be appreciated.
I have just read an article in the Daily Mail where Eurostar says it will not be reimbursing flights home because they consider trains are up and running again…
However, with the chaos at Gare du Nord and the restricted number of trains leaving this could hardly be considered a “normal service.” Also, I booked my flight home before any trains were up and running and the director of Eurostar was on the international TV news claiming that Eurostar “cannot guarantee to get everyone who has booked with us home by Christmas.”
I was stuck on the train on Sunday in the dark with no air or Electricity! I was promised compensation and it is not occuring! I hope thare is a change in management at the Eurostar! The Eurostar lies to its customers!