Eurostar, the high-speed train service connecting Britain and continental Europe, said all of its trains were canceled until further notice after a major power failure inside the Channel Tunnel, disrupting plans for thousands of people during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year.
The disruption, caused by a fault in the overhead power supply and the subsequent breakdown of a train within the 31-mile tunnel, left passengers stranded for hours.
“We advise our customers to rebook their journey for another day, with free exchanges available,” Eurostar said in a statement, urging passengers not to go to affected train stations.
By early afternoon, the train that had broken down — part of a service known as LeShuttle that transports vehicles under the Channel — had been moved out of the tunnel, and trains were headed back to the cities from which they had departed. The Eurostar terminal in London St. Pancras International station was jammed with passengers trying to rearrange their plans.
Jylian Repetski, an American who was traveling in Europe over the winter holidays, said she had been stuck on a train heading to Brussels from London for more than five hours. The train, which had been scheduled to leave London just after 7 a.m., departed an hour late and then was stopped in England outside the Channel Tunnel for about four hours, before returning to London around 12:30 p.m., she said.
Ms. Repetski, a director at a technology company who lives outside Philadelphia, said she, her husband, two children, her ex-husband and his wife had planned to spend the day in Belgium sightseeing, enjoying the architecture and sampling Belgian chocolate. It was “definitely a sad waste of five hours during a short trip,” she said.
Jenny Gross is a reporter for The Times covering breaking news and other topics.
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