Channel Tunnel rail traffic linking Britain with mainland Europe began a gradual recovery on Tuesday after a power supply failure forced the suspension of all cross-Channel train services at one of the busiest travel periods of the year, stranding thousands of passengers just days before New Year celebrations.
Tunnel operator Getlink said traffic was being progressively restored using alternative systems and expressed confidence that services would return to normal overnight. The disruption, which halted Eurostar passenger trains between London, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, triggered widespread travel chaos as holidaymakers scrambled for flights, ferries and road options.
“Traffic is being re-established in both directions on an alternative basis,” Getlink said in a statement on Tuesday evening. “Work will continue this evening and should allow a return to normal overnight.”
Eurostar, which operates passenger services through the 50-kilometre Channel Tunnel, confirmed earlier in the afternoon that limited operations had resumed, with the first trains scheduled to depart around 1600 GMT. However, the company warned that disruption was likely to persist throughout the evening.
“The overhead power supply issue remains,” Eurostar said, urging passengers to postpone their journeys if possible. It warned of severe delays and last-minute cancellations and advised travellers not to go to stations if their trains had been cancelled.
The outage struck at a peak moment in the holiday travel calendar, with large numbers of people crossing between Britain and the continent in the run-up to New Year. Services were suspended earlier in the day after a power supply fault in the tunnel, compounded by a failed LeShuttle train, which transports vehicles between Folkestone in southeast England and Coquelles near Calais in northern France.
The combined problems brought traffic through the tunnel to a standstill, rippling across the European rail network. Eurostar’s website showed that even some continental services not directly passing through the tunnel, including trains between Paris and Brussels, were cancelled during the day as rolling stock and crew were displaced.
At London’s St Pancras International station, crowds of stranded passengers with suitcases and backpacks gathered around information screens and ticket desks, while similar scenes unfolded at Paris’s Gare du Nord. Many travellers were notified by text or email that their trains had been cancelled, forcing sudden changes to carefully planned holiday itineraries.
“I’m disappointed. We were going to do New Year’s Eve in Paris,” said Jessica, a 21-year-old business coordinator in London who was planning to travel with three friends. “We’re going to see if we can find another ticket. Otherwise, we will stay in London.”
For some families, the disruption threatened to derail longer holidays. Jodie, 37, who declined to give her surname, had booked an Airbnb in Paris until January 4 for herself, her husband and their four-year-old daughter.
“We can’t find tickets for tomorrow. It has disrupted all our holiday,” she said. “We are looking for alternative routes.”
Others took a more relaxed view of the situation. Sophie Gontowicz, trying to return to Paris after spending three days in London with her family, said she was approaching the delay with perspective.
“In the end, it gives us an extra day of vacation,” she said.
In Paris, 19-year-old British traveller Grace Emery said she might try to cross the Channel by ferry after her train was cancelled following a trip to Disneyland.
“It is an inconvenience for people,” she said. “But stuff like this happens all the time and there’s nothing you can really do about it.”
Not everyone was willing to wait. Chaitan Patel, a 46-year-old American attempting to get back to London, said he was exploring every possible option.
“We’re looking at every option: plane, car – but even flying is difficult,” he said.
Another stranded passenger, Katherine Jordan, 39, said she hoped to secure a flight so she and her nine-year-old son Oscar could make it back to Britain in time for New Year’s Eve. Even if that proved impossible, she said, returning within the next two days would be a relief.
“Any time in the next 48 hours would be amazing,” she said, adding that her son had advised her to “stay calm because there’s no point in getting annoyed”.
Tuesday’s disruption comes during a period of intense scrutiny for Eurostar, which carried a record 19.5 million passengers last year, an increase of nearly five percent compared with 2023. Demand was boosted by major international events, including the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, as well as a broader shift toward rail travel for environmental reasons.
Eurostar has held a monopoly on passenger services through the Channel Tunnel since it opened in 1994, but competition may be on the horizon. British entrepreneur Richard Branson has said he intends to launch a rival cross-Channel service, while Italy’s state-backed Trenitalia has announced plans to enter the Paris–London market by 2029.
The latest outage also revives criticism over Eurostar’s reliability and pricing, particularly on its flagship Paris–London route. In August, an electrical fault forced widespread cancellations and delays, while in June the theft of cables on rail lines in northern France caused two days of disruption.
As engineers worked to stabilise power supplies and clear stranded trains from the tunnel on Tuesday night, operators faced pressure to restore confidence among travellers eager to salvage their New Year plans. While services were expected to normalise overnight, the episode served as a reminder of how vulnerable one of Europe’s most important transport links can be to technical failures at the busiest times of the year.
