Eurostar chaos as cable theft cancels trains and leaves thousands of passengers stranded

Thousands of passengers have had their Eurostar journeys cancelled after two days of disruption led to “chaos” on the high-speed line.

Customers were warned on Wednesday to delay or cancel their journeys after 600m of cable was stolen on the cross-Channel line near Lille, France, forcing more than 5,000 people to have their journeys cancelled.

It came after passengers faced long delays on Tuesday evening, when two people were hit by trains on the network. An estimated 10,000 people were affected by the chaos which brought journeys between London and Paris to a standstill.

One customer claimed on social media that their disabled niece “had no choice to sleep on the floor of the train station” at Gare du Nord, Paris after their train to London was cancelled. “Her birthday holiday was ruined,” they added.

Passenger Matt Bould told The Independent he had driven all the way from Lyon to Paris to catch a train to England so he can attend Glastonbury Festival.

“My train was cancelled yesterday,” he said, adding he’d rebooked his journey only to have his train cancelled this morning. “There wasn’t a single flight out of Paris until the late evening for £250 and my coach to Glastonbury is leaving at 3pm from London. You can’t go to Glastonbury if you don’t hop on the coach assigned!”

On Wednesday, trains between London St Pancras International and Gare Du Nord in Paris were delayed or cancelled throughout the day, with delays ranging between 40 and 120 minutes.

No trains from London to Brussels were cancelled, but delays of between 50 and 80 minutes were expected. Delays from Brussels to London increased sharply, with one train set arrive at St Pancras almost three hours behind schedule.

An alert on the Eurostar website on Wednesday read: “Due to a cable theft near Lille Europe, our trains are likely to be subject to severe delays and last-minute cancellations. We advise you to cancel or postpone your trip.”

Nigel Hardman, 57, found out his family’s trip to Paris had been cancelled after he took a train from Blackpool to London Euston at 5.30am. The delays led them to board a train to Brussels instead of Paris, meaning they have lost out on about £700 in hotel costs and connecting trains.

He said: “There’s no availability on trains to Paris – they’re all booked up. We’re going to go to Brussels and stay there, then shoot down to Strasbourg where we were supposed to be. I only found out on an email at about 3.30am this morning, why couldn’t they have told us last night?

“And when we got here, we were in the queue for an hour before we found out the other trains to Paris were all booked up. Everyone was useless until one really organised guy was telling it to us straight. It’s going to cost us about £700 extra which is really frustrating. And it’s just a nightmare start to our trip.

“It’s just delirium at the moment – and we’re going to find a pub in Brussels as soon as we get there. We’ll need a drink – if we ever arrive today.”

Keith Beaumont and his wife spent eight hours trying to get to Paris on Tuesday, after catching a 2pm train from Leeds to St Pancras and boarding a 7pm trip to France’s capital. The train reached the entrance to the tunnel, before it was announced they could not continue.

He said: “We arrived back at St. Pancras some time after 10pm. Again there was total chaos!”

One customer on Wednesday morning complained to the operator on X: “I can not change booking, train yesterday was cancelled and my elderly mother is stuck in Paris,” to which Eurostar apologised for the “total chaos due to 2 accidents involving people and a cable theft.”

A spokesperson for the operator apologised as they confirmed the disruption on Tuesday evening had been caused by two separate fatalities on the LGV Nord high-speed line between Lille and Paris.

“Our thoughts are with the families and friends of those who lost their lives,” they said. “The line was closed for much of the afternoon and evening, resulting in significant disruption to Eurostar services... Disruption is continuing today due to the knock-on impact of displaced trains and crew.”

They added that services had had been further affected by an incident of cable theft on the same line near Lille.

“We’re very sorry for the continued disruption and the impact this is having on our customers. Our teams are working closely with the French authorities and infrastructure teams to manage the situation and restore services safely.

“Customers have been contacted directly with updates and available options. Water is being distributed onboard delayed trains, and station teams remain on hand to offer assistance. Affected customers can change their travel plans free of charge or request a full refund.”

On Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson added that one track had been reopened, allowing trains to run in both directions until full repairs are completed.

But passengers took to social media to complain after facing hours of delays about how Eurostar had handled the disruption as photos on social media showed large queues at both railway stations on Tuesday.

One traveller said: “This was handled poorly, little communication, bad announcements for those of us stuck on trains with no food as sold out, no running water and a bad website to file a claim. I will never use this service again after the poor communication and experience.“

Another said: “It’s so sad. But maybe don’t charge 375 euros surge pricing to get a replacement ticket. There were 30 school children on the 19.01 train. And after 2 hours of waiting we were told hotels would be provided and a replacement train. It’s getting worse week by week”.

Eurostar passenger Elizabeth Romijn, 75, a yoga teacher from the Netherlands said she is used to issues with the train service, but described Wednesday’s disruption as “very chaotic”.

She was planning to make her way home catching the train to Brussels today after visiting friends in Guildford, and has decided to wait in the station to see if she can board a train.

She said: “My plan is to just wait. Maybe I should go and be more proactive and go to ask one of the staff but nobody seems to know anything. And it’s quite horrible long queues.

“We Dutch people know how to wait – but the problem is it’s chaotic, very chaotic.”

If you’ve been affected by the Eurostar delays, email your story to bryony.gooch.ind@independent.co.uk .