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Over Christmas and New Year, Airline travelers in Heathrow and Gatwick faced repeated mass failures because of bad weather. Disturbing for passengers but at least they had generously Rules of rights on air travelers on their side. They were entitled to alternative transport as soon as possible at the airline expenditure, plus meals and hotels, until they could travel.
Some passengers are completed for Paris Eurostarwhich earned a neat sum of people through the canal tunnel to French capital.
This weekend turned the tables turned. In the early hours on Friday morning, a semi-tone bomb was discovered under a trail that is simply north of Paris Gare du Nord. Trains and outside the busiest cells in Continental Europe, including Eurostar services, are suspended.
Time could hardly be up. Friday is the busiest day for Eurostar. In addition to many business travelers who go home to London or Paris at the end of the weekday, thousands of free passengers move for the weekend.
As the disposal experts were dealing with weapons, Eurostar initially air conditioned three departure … then nine … then a dozen. No one was safe if the lines can be reopened. By 9am, the company decided to write off the entire schedule of 32 trains, although domestic services and from Gare du Nord continued later.
“We took the decision to cancel all the trains in Paris and from leaving to give our customers safer and enable them to make alternative plans,” the spokesman said.
Calculating cancellations left 25,000 passengers out of position. I met some of them London St Pancras InternationalUnited Kingdom for Eurostar. Aidan Kelly, a police officer from Essex, was with three colleagues booked from London to Paris. They plan to lead a charitable half marathon on Sunday in honor of the paleg colleague.
“We found out on the way to London that there were problems,” he told me. “Then it looked like the trains would start running again. But it doesn’t happen now.”
The quartet tried to switch to the railway train for Lille, which would at least have them to the right of the canal. But the station staff announced that they cannot join the row for users in the row to transfer because the line was too long.
“They’re just exceeded,” Aidan told me. “I can’t face it well. Obviously the weight of the numbers is just too much for them, so they just closed customer services.”
Go online, passengers are invited – but also the Eurostara and application website has collapsed under the voltage of many thousands of passengers trying to rearrange their travel.
“Nothing seems to work on the app, so you don’t know what’s going on,” Aidan said. “It’s really a little disaster.”
Eurostar spokesman later told me: “For large amounts of customers trying to manage their reservations, our website and application experienced some technical difficulties. Our teams quickly worked to solve.”
The last time I saw four officers, they were trying to organize a vehicle to drive in Paris, using Eurotunnel from Folkeston to Calais. Other passengers took the train to Manchester – in a diametrically opposite direction in French capital – to board the Easyjet Flight for Paris CDG, one of the few airplanes with available seats.
You alone, there was a message from Eurostar.
“Unfortunately, we do not organize a taxi or alternative transport in Paris,” the spokesman told me. “We recommend passengers to check local travel opportunities and agreements accordingly.”
An alternative plan for EuroStar could be in order to initiate Sortir and Lille in northern France, or maybe to Marne La Vallée – Station for Disneyland Parison the suburban railway from the center of French capital. Eurostar did not answer my inquiry about this; I guess it’s just too hard.
I also wondered the payment of Eurostar for hotels for people who were charged at any end of the route. “We encourage customers to check with your travel insurance provider regarding hotel costs,” said the spokesman.
Eurostar has suffered more than almost any other tourist firm during the insight pandemic. Often bizarre restrictions travel imposed by British and French governments cost a solid hundredth of millions of pounds. But the job bounced harder than ever. The company takes an average of £ 20 from every passenger in operating profit – still seemingly giving the corporate shoulder when things go out of the song. “Go back another day or ask for a refund.”
Indication of travel insurers is one of the ways to refuse the cost of caring for passengers. As a monopoly UK donor in the UK, Eurostar knows that passengers will continue to arrive.
When (no “if” I hope) that Market control has been interrupted by the arrival of one or more competitorsPassengers will be able to assess the user’s choice of who will be booked. And if new rivals decide to adopt the Eurostar position “You yourself”, at least my passengers we should pay less in the first place thanks to the competition – which can’t arrive enough.
Simon Calder, also known as a man who pays his way, writes about traveling for independent since 1994. years. In his weekly opinion, he explores the key issue of travel – and what does it mean for you.