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| Eurotunnel car services disrupted | Eurotunnel car services disrupted |
| (19 minutes later) | |
| Eurotunnel has closed its shuttle car service to new arrivals, saying its terminal is at "saturation point". | Eurotunnel has closed its shuttle car service to new arrivals, saying its terminal is at "saturation point". |
| Day trip bookings are not being honoured, with Eurotunnel citing a "massive backlog" partly due to three days of problems on the Eurostar. | Day trip bookings are not being honoured, with Eurotunnel citing a "massive backlog" partly due to three days of problems on the Eurostar. |
| Passengers with pre-booked tickets face delays of at least two hours. | |
| Meanwhile Eurostar has announced it hopes to resume a limited service on Tuesday, saying: "We will do our best to get everybody home by Christmas." | Meanwhile Eurostar has announced it hopes to resume a limited service on Tuesday, saying: "We will do our best to get everybody home by Christmas." |
| Eurostar services were suspended on Monday for a third day. The firm's head of operations Nicolas Petrovic told the Associated Press news agency that the shutdown had affected 40,000 people. | |
| Eurostar launched an inquiry into the train breakdowns, thought to have been caused by condensation forming on electrical systems as the train entered the warm tunnel. | |
| Eurostar said snow shields used to protect the electrics had worked for the past 15 years, but the recent cold snap in France had been "unprecedented" in their experience. | |
| Contractors were busy fitting modifications to the trains in an attempt to make them less prone to breakdown. | |
| Services on Tuesday would depend the result of further tests on modified trains on Monday afternoon, said Eurostar chief executive Richard Brown. | |
| But he said the firm hoped to run two-thirds of the normal service - amounting to about 26,000 seats - with more services planned on Wednesday and Thursday. | |
| EUROSTAR ADVICE If your journey is not essential, do not travelA full refund will be offered to those whose journeys have been affectedPassengers whose journeys were severely disrupted on Friday or Saturday will also be given £150 compensation, out-of-pocket expenses, and a free return ticketThose who had bookings for Saturday, Sunday or Monday can claim "reasonable" out-of-pocket expenses such as hotel, transport and meal costsAll updates will be posted on the Eurostar website and given out to news outlets Are you a Eurostar passenger? | EUROSTAR ADVICE If your journey is not essential, do not travelA full refund will be offered to those whose journeys have been affectedPassengers whose journeys were severely disrupted on Friday or Saturday will also be given £150 compensation, out-of-pocket expenses, and a free return ticketThose who had bookings for Saturday, Sunday or Monday can claim "reasonable" out-of-pocket expenses such as hotel, transport and meal costsAll updates will be posted on the Eurostar website and given out to news outlets Are you a Eurostar passenger? |
| Eurotunnel's passenger backlog appeared to have been sparked by hundreds of passengers who turned up on Monday, after postponing their travel plans over the weekend due to bad weather. | |
| But only drivers with pre-booked tickets were being allowed on the trains. Those - including disappointed Eurostar customers - who turned up hoping to buy a ticket on the day were turned away. | But only drivers with pre-booked tickets were being allowed on the trains. Those - including disappointed Eurostar customers - who turned up hoping to buy a ticket on the day were turned away. |
| The company said drivers with pre-booked tickets still faced a two-hour delay while the backlog was cleared. | The company said drivers with pre-booked tickets still faced a two-hour delay while the backlog was cleared. |
| Firm spokesman John Keefe there were almost 7,000 cars booked to travel on Monday. | Firm spokesman John Keefe there were almost 7,000 cars booked to travel on Monday. |
| He said: "In order to help the traffic flow we closed the check-in and we are stopping traffic at that point until we've got the terminal into free-flow again." | He said: "In order to help the traffic flow we closed the check-in and we are stopping traffic at that point until we've got the terminal into free-flow again." |
| EUROTUNNEL ADVICE Day-trips bookings will not be honoured and day-trip customers are advised not to travel To rebook travel to an alternative date, call the Eurotunnel contact centre on 08443 35 35 35 or amend your booking class="" href="http://www.eurotunnel.com/ukcp3main">online Customers without a reservation are advised not to make their way to Eurotunnel as they will not be able to purchase a ticketPre-booked customers are advised to call the 24-hour automated customer information line 08444 63 00 00 for the latest travel information class="" href="/2/hi/uk_news/8424796.stm">Stranded travellers' bid for home class="" href="/2/hi/uk_news/8425145.stm">Who is to blame for Eurostar chaos? | |
| "We will then be opening the check-in and letting in traffic in batches." | |
| French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said that "to have traffic blocked for several days in a row, that is not acceptable". | French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said that "to have traffic blocked for several days in a row, that is not acceptable". |
| He also said his ministry would launch a probe into "what happened, how it happened and how to avoid such events in the future". | He also said his ministry would launch a probe into "what happened, how it happened and how to avoid such events in the future". |
| Eurotunnel has urged passengers to consult its website or telephone information line to help plan their journey accordingly. | Eurotunnel has urged passengers to consult its website or telephone information line to help plan their journey accordingly. |
| And the firm has asked passengers who had planned to travel over the next few days to change their bookings if possible. | And the firm has asked passengers who had planned to travel over the next few days to change their bookings if possible. |
| Their priority was to get displaced people back home, it said. | Their priority was to get displaced people back home, it said. |
| British Airways said it was operating larger aircraft on many flights between London Heathrow and Paris on Monday, and Flybe said it was also increasing capacity to help ease the situation. | British Airways said it was operating larger aircraft on many flights between London Heathrow and Paris on Monday, and Flybe said it was also increasing capacity to help ease the situation. |
| But Easyjet said French aviation authorities had imposed flight restrictions on the airline at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, leading to delays and cancellations. | But Easyjet said French aviation authorities had imposed flight restrictions on the airline at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, leading to delays and cancellations. |
| Have you been affected by the closure of the tunnel? Send us your comments. | Have you been affected by the closure of the tunnel? Send us your comments. |
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