Big disruption to Eurostar services
He added that cables breaking is extremely rare on the Eurostar network.
The consequences of the incident are still being felt on Friday. Three Eurostar trains to or from London have been cancelled. They are 10:13 from London to Paris, the 10:56 from London to Brussels and the 14:04 from London to Brussels.
All other Eurostar services are running, albeit with delays of between 15 and 20 minutes.
Stuck for 8 hours
The two trains that got stuck both left the British capital London at around 6pm on Thursday evening. One was heading for Paris the other was heading for Brussels. The Paris-bound train with 696 passengers on board came to halt in the Lille suburb of Lambersart.
The Brussels-bound train with 600 passengers on board also came to a halt a few kilometres shorts of Lille-Europe station.
The Brussels-bound train finally arrived in Lille at around 5.30. The passengers were transferred to another train to continue their journey to Brussels. Many passengers complained about the poor communication on the part of Eurostar the Fleming Pieter Quaeyhaegens told the VRT that “There was almost no information given for the whole 8 hours.”
"After a while they started giving away free food and drink, but only in the bars and only to people in the know. At around 4:20 the train was hooked up to a new locomotive and we left for Lille where we could change for Brussels”.
On their arrival in Brussels, the passengers were given compensation worth twice the value of their return ticket and a free return ticket for travel at a later date and were taken home by taxi or by train at Eurostar’s expense.