More than 600 passengers found their journey disrupted by delays caused by “technical problems” on Friday evening and Saturday morning.


They left St Pancras at 9.05pm for what should have been a two-hour journey, but were forced to swap trains in Lille.


They spent an hour and a half in Lille before the journey continued, but the train then broke down to the north of Paris.


It was three hours before they were able to board a third train and they finally got to their destination shortly after 9am local time.


The company has launched an internal investigation into the events.


A Eurostar spokesman said: “We apologise profusely to our travellers for the unacceptable delay, inconvenience and frustration that they have suffered.


“We are offering everyone on board a full cash refund on both legs of their return tickets and in addition a free return ticket for future use.”

See also:

The EUROSTAR incident was totally predictable!

SUD-Rail: April 24, 2008

SUD-Rail Federation of Railworkers Unions
17 boulevard de la liberation - 93200 - Saint Denis
Tel 01 42 43 35 75 - Fax 01 42 43 36 67
federation-sudrail@wanadoo.fr
www.sudrail.org

The EUROSTAR incident was predicted in the [SNCF] ‘Roads and Bridges’ report in November 2003 (into the near miss at Villeneuve Marshalling Yard on September 20, 2003). It therefore represents a real setback for the new SNCF President. The SUD-Rail union is demanding Mr. PEPY takes full responsibility for this incident, which is simply the next logical step in a long string of well-known incidents, which each year cause dozens of trains to fail on the mainline.

SUD-Rail believes this incident is the result of a political choice. Since 2003 SNCF bosses have been unable to implement operational practices called for by rail users as a result of recommendations and conclusions from ‘Roads and Bridges’. SNCF were required to modernise rail safety procedures so that users will not left abandoned for hours on the main line.

The disruption recorded during the EUROSTAR incident on the night of 18-19 April 2008 is the result of reductions in training, staffing and resources on the ground and reflects no more no less the options deliberately chosen by the management.

The problem of troubleshooting has direct consequences for transfers and evacuation of passengers, whatever type of rail traffic is concerned (VFE [high-speed trains], Transilien [Paris regional trains] and TER [provincial trains]).

SUD-Rail representatives at various forums within the company for a number of years now have been demanding modernisation of:
-- Mainline safety procedures
-- Equipment
-- Appropriate stress training for staff at greatest risk.

A train driver may have to manage up to 2,400 passengers on his/her own, for example in the Greater Paris region. The immediate re-training of EUROSTAR Drivers already announced reflects the urgency of the matter, but this absolutely must be extended to all train drivers on the national network.

In 2006 SUD-Rail won an expert enquiry on troubleshooting procedures for train drivers on the mainline. This expert enquiry, carried out by SNCF, demonstrated serious inconsistencies, including seeking unprecedented reductions in the level of training of train crews and equipment budgets.

Apart from the creation of "driving support centres", which is proving to be a real step backwards, recommendations have not been followed up from near-accidents at Villeneuve Marshalling Yard and Cormeilles in Parisis.

SUD-Rail says: “Neither the act of establishing these centres nor the recommendations of ‘Roads and Bridges’ prevented either the events at EUROSTAR, nor the increasing number of incidents across the network (for SNCF and other private operators).”

“SNCF Drivers are legally responsible for the professional execution of their duties and require the company to deliver effective training (both initial and development) and to make appropriate technical means available for the complex situations they encounter out on the mainline.”

“Accordingly, SUD-Rail is demanding a proper investigation by the BEA-TT (Land Transport Accident Investigation Bureau) and that responsibilities should be established at the highest level to prevent such scenarios from happening again on the network.”

“Measures must be taken to improve the reliability of rail transport for a high quality public transport service.”

St Denis, April 24, 2008, 17.00 hrs