Eurostar suspended all trains between London, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels on Tuesday after a power supply issue in the Channel tunnel, with a "gradual" resumption of traffic later announced from Tuesday afternoon.
"There was a power supply problem in the Channel tunnel, followed by a shuttle train coming to a halt inside," the Eurostar spokesperson said on Tuesday morning.
The Channel tunnel's operator Getlink said train traffic would progressively resume Tuesday afternoon following a technical intervention.
"There was an incident on Tuesday morning related to a failure of power supply to trains in the tunnel, requiring a technical intervention currently underway on the cables," a spokeswoman said, adding traffic should gradually resume from 2pm UK time.
Eurostar on Tuesday morning had advised all passengers to postpone their journeys to a different date.
"Please don't come to the station unless you already have a ticket to travel," Eurostar said in a message on its website.
"We regret that trains that can run are subject to severe delays and last-minute cancellations," it added.
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Eurostar, which operates services between Britain and mainland Europe, urged customers to "check for live updates on the status of your train".
The disruption came in the very busy travel period between Christmas and New Year.
Eurostar runs trains from London's St Pancras station to locations including as Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.
LeShuttle also operates vehicle-carrying trains between Folkestone in southeast England and Calais in northern France.
A record-high 19.5 million passengers travelled on Eurostar last year, up nearly five percent on 2023, driven by demand from visitors to the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris.
Eurostar has held a monopoly on passenger services through the tunnel linking Britain and France since it opened in 1994.
But British entrepreneur Richard Branson – the man behind the Virgin airline – has vowed to launch a rival service. Italy's Trenitalia has also said it intends to compete with Eurostar on the Paris-London route by 2029.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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