Eurostop

A Eurostar train journey from London to Paris took 10 hours on Friday night, as opposed to the customary two. When the London-bound service approached the Channel Tunnel, a red light came on in the driver's cab, which indicated a technical fault. This forebade it from entering the Tunnel. So, it was stopped, as was a train travelling in the opposite direction. Passengers were swapped between the two trains, and the London-bound passengers arrived at their destination without much delay.

Not so the Paris-bound passengers. Their train broke down 75 miles north of Paris, and a replacement train had to be called up to tow the break-down to Paris. At a snail's pace. It finally arrived in Paris Gare du Nord at 9 in the morning, some 10 hours late. The passengers are fuming - partially because all power was lost, leading to a loss of air-conditioning. Other passengers could no longer hold on to their enforced nicotine break, so it all got rather hot and bothered on there.

The SNCF has been ordered to report on Monday on lessons learned from the incident. Methinks it's easy. A train with a fault should not proceed at all. Period.