12/21/2009

Eurostar trains stopped by severe cold

Here is one story that does mention the Eurostar trains have been canceled by the cold weather. This is apparently the first time that these trains have been stopped by cold weather.

LONDON (AFP) – Eurostar train services between Britain and Europe were suspended for a third straight day Monday due to the freezing weather, throwing the Christmas plans of thousands more people into chaos.
More than 24,000 people have already been affected, but the operator of the high-speed Channel Tunnel passenger trains linking London with Paris and Brussels said there would be no services Monday.
Eurostar said that following tests Monday to train modifications it would make an announcement about the prospects for travel Tuesday between the three major European capitals.
Eurostar sent out modified test trains Sunday to see if they could withstand the freezing temperatures and snowy conditions in northeastern France which are being blamed for causing five trains to break down in the under-sea tunnel on Friday.
"Eurostar will not be operating services on Monday," the company said in a statement. . . .


On this being the first time this has happened:

Eurostar spokesman Nick Mercer said the company would be running test trains in the tunnel on Sunday "to get to the bottom of this, really, quite abnormal situation."

"This is the first time in 15 years that we've encountered this problem. We run something like 20,000 trains a year, and this is the first time this has happened," he said. . . .


Here are some results for a search done Monday, December 21, 2009 at 6:20 PM
Number of stories in a Google news search on "Eurostar trains canceled": 1,806
Number of stories in a Google news search on "Eurostar trains canceled cold": 1,062
Number of stories in a Google news search on "Eurostar trains canceled cold "global warming"": 1



Labels: ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home