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Sarkozy orders Eurostar to end Paris-London rail chaos
Paris (AFP) Dec 21, 2009 French President Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered Eurostar to get its trains back on track by Tuesday after a shutdown blamed partly on "fluffy" snow caused misery for tens of thousands of travellers. Eurostar said services between London and Paris could partially resume on Tuesday morning if test runs on trains "go well", but that schedules would not get back to normal before Christmas on Friday at the earliest. Around 75,000 travellers have been left stranded by the cancellation of services on one of the busiest weeks of the year in the run-up to the Christmas break, said Eurostar, updating its earlier figure of 40,000. The chaos began when five trains broke down on Friday night amid freezing temperatures and snow in northern France, trapping two thousand passengers overnight in the 50-kilometre (31-mile) undersea tunnel. Many passengers were outraged at their treatment while trapped on board the blocked trains, with some complaining they had been left for hours without food, drink or information on when and how their ordeal would end. Transport misery continued on Monday, with travellers in the Eurostar terminals in London and Paris angered that the company cannot yet tell them when they can begin a journey that usually takes just over two hours. "I come each day intending to be strong, but now, with the fatigue and the lack of information..." 27-year-old British traveller Sze-Wei Lu said as she fought back tears in the Gare du Nord station in Paris. The winter cold snap that shut down the Eurostar trains has also caused dozens of deaths and major transport disruption across Europe. Nick Mercer, commercial director of the company jointly owned by the French and Belgian state railway and a private British firm, said Eurostar was still trying to figure out what had gone wrong. "It seems to be a strange combination of factors," he told the BBC, noting that the trains had successfully undergone a "winterisation" process. "It was the amount of snow, which was higher than we experienced before, it was lighter than normal, fluffier, and the temperature inside the tunnel and the humidity was higher than normal," said Mercer. That explanation failed to placate French government ministers, who on Monday expressed outrage over the breakdown and ordered a probe. British Transport Minister Sadiq Khan said he was "angry" that passengers had still not been told what was going on. As frustration mounted, Sarkozy summoned the chairman of Eurostar to his Elysee offices for an explanation. "The president asked that a resumption of traffic be effective by tomorrow, December 22," said a statement issued by his office after the meeting. Sarkozy also told Guillaume Pepy, who is chairman of both Eurostar and the French SNCF rail network, that he wanted him to implement new measures to avoid a repeat of the "unacceptable" stoppage of the service. Shortly after that statement, Eurostar's chief operating officer Nicolas Petrovic held a press conference to say passenger rail service between London and Paris and Brussels might begin to resume on Tuesday morning. "We are confident," he said, noting that tests so far conducted had been satisfactory. Eurostar said it had launched its own review by independent experts into the breakdown of the high-speed trains. The shuttle service that carries cars and trucks on trains under the Channel was functioning normally Monday, its operator Eurotunnel said, but it was taking no more bookings for the moment because it was "saturated". Eurostar meanwhile said it would compensate the thousands of passengers who had been stuck overnight in the tunnel at the weekend. They will get double the price they paid for their tickets as well as up to 170 euros (243 dollars) and would have any hotel or taxi expenses reimbursed, it said. Others who have not been able to travel can exchange their tickets for a later date or have them reimbursed and will have any expenses incurred reimbursed on a case-by-case basis. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Record-breaking storm closes US federal government Washington (AFP) Dec 21, 2009 The federal government was closed Monday after a record-breaking snowstorm swept across the northeastern United States and put a damper on one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year. Just days before Christmas, the eastern seaboard from North Carolina to New England was digging out from the worst blizzard in years, which closed train and bus service, paralyzed air traffic, crippled ... read more |
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