Eurostar will not be operating services on Monday 21 December 2009

Eurostar, at 20:00 (GMT) announced that it will not be operating services on Monday 21 December in light of forecasts of further snowfall in northern France.

As a result of the test runs that were conducted today we now understand the cause of the disruption over the weekend and have identified the modifications that are required.

As we suspected, the acute weather conditions in northern France have caused the disruption.  Every year we carry out a ‘winterisation’ programme of the entire fleet which to date has successfully protected our trains.  We now know, however, that we need to further enhance the snow screens and snow shields in the power cars of the trains.

We have already started making the modifications and to ensure that these new protection measures work effectively we are conducting a further series of test runs tomorrow.  Our priority is ensuring that when we resume services we provide our customers with a robust and reliable operation.

We sincerely regret having to take this decision and we understand how frustrated and disappointed travellers will be, particularly those who have been waiting to travel for the last two days.

We strongly advise passengers whose travel is non-essential to change their booking to a later date or claim a refund on their tickets.

For customers who have been unable to travel over the last few days, Eurostar will cover the cost of out-of pocket expenses, for example, hotels and taxis. Full details of our compensation policy are on www.eurostar.com

We will provide a further update on our services by 18.00 (GMT) tomorrow Monday 21 December 2009.

For additional information, please go to www.eurostar.com or call on 08432 186186.

***ENDS***
 
   
For more information contact:
 
Eurostar Press Office
Eurostar
t:0044 (0)20 7843 5500
e:press.office@eurostar.co.uk