Channel Tunnel disruption upends NYE travel plans for Eurostar passengers

Описание: (30 Dec 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paris - 30 December 2025
1. Various of stranded passengers near Eurostar access platform
2. Various of departures board showing trains cancelled
3. Various of stranded passengers, terminal
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Issy and Jamie Gill, British couple returning to the UK:
"(Issy:) We came for my 30th birthday and we were supposed to go back on the Eurostar, but everything's been cancelled. And we don't know about tomorrow. We have a one year old at home with my mum and dad, and I'm gonna get upset..."
"(Jamie:) That's OK. He's with his nanny, and he's having a great time. We miss him."
"(Issy:) It's just stressful."
"(Jamie:) Yeah, we managed to get a flight to Birmingham tomorrow, so we'll be able to get the train back hopefully on time."
"(Issy:) We just need to find somewhere to stay."
"(Jamie:) Find somewhere to stay but yeah, it's a stressful situation."
5. Various of Eurostar train with passengers disembarking and others queueing on footbridge above
6. SOUNDBITE (French) Sarah Omouri, French tourist on her way to the UK:
"We were on our way to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday and New Year's Eve, and it's been maybe a year since we've had a vacation. I'm disgusted, disheartened, and we didn't really understand the organization."
"(Family member outside frame:) The customer service is catastrophic."
"(Sarah:) We were made to get on the train, to get off, get on again, and get off again. Now we're told that everything is fully booked for several days, it's ruined."
7. Various of stranded passengers in terminal
8. SOUNDBITE (French) Marcus Adje, Student from Paris:
"We are students, meaning we had saved up some money and we had a few days in London for New Year's. We had a whole programme, pretty busy. But now... Now we're heading home."
9. Wide of UK flag inside station
10. SOUNDBITE (French) Marcus Adje, Student from Paris:
"(We are going to) Get our money back. I checked for plane tickets... and then saw the price. I'm just going to get a refund, and spend New Year's Eve with my family I think."
11. Various exteriors of Gare du Nord train station
STORYLINE:
Power problems and a stuck train interrupted rail services through the undersea Channel Tunnel connecting the U.K. and continental Europe on Tuesday, stranding passengers and ruining vacation plans during the busy end-of-year holiday period.

At Paris' Gare du Nord station, Jamie and Issy Gill scrambled to find a flight back to the U.K. after their Eurostar train to London was canceled, desperate to be reunited with their baby boy after enjoying a getaway together in the French capital.

“We came for my 30th birthday and we were supposed to go back on the Eurostar, but everything is canceled,” she said.

"We have a 1-year-old at home, with my mum and dad. I'm going to get upset,” she said, wiping away tears.

“It’s a stressful situation,” Jamie Gill said.

He said that they'd now have to take a roundabout route back, with a flight via Birmingham on Wednesday.

Eurostar — which runs passenger trains between London and Paris and other European destinations — blamed “overhead power supply issues in the Channel Tunnel” and what it said was a failed train operated by LeShuttle, which transports vehicles and their passengers by rail through the tunnel between the ports of Calais, France, and Folkestone, England.

Eurostar said in a statement that its services “are suspended until further notice," and advised its passengers to rebook their journeys for other days.


It said that traffic is expected to resume gradually on Tuesday afternoon.

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