Eurostar passengers were stuck for more than ten hours on trains overnight while others on LeShuttle had to walk through the Channel Tunnel after being evacuated.
Videos filmed from inside one Eurostar service last night showed passengers sat in darkness with no working toilets, heating or electricity to charge their phones.
It follows Eurostar axing all its London to Europe services yesterday when an overhead power supply problem and a failed LeShuttle train blocked all routes.
Some trains resumed on the single available line yesterday evening but these were delayed when Eurostar faced further issues with rail infrastructure overnight.
Passenger Ghislain Planque told French TV station BFM that his Eurostar journey from London to France last night was meant to take just under 90 minutes but instead was 11 hours, with passengers stuck overnight in the train that had only intermittent power.
He said: ‘We were left without electricity, so with no heating, no air-conditioning, no possibility to charge phones. We were in total darkness for some of the time.’
Another named Herve said after arriving in Lille following an 11-hour delay: ‘Nothing electrical is working. It’s always the same information – there’s a serious problem.’
Passenger James Weatherby told the Daily Mail that he was booked on the cancelled 11.04am from St Pancras to Lille train yesterday before moving to a 6.04pm service.
French television station BFM TV broadcast a video of the scene filmed by a passenger on board a Eurostar train which became stranded overnight due to the ongoing problems
TikTok user Eloise De Marco posted a TikTok video on board a stranded Eurostar train with the caption: ‘When you’ve been stuck on the Eurostar for 10 hours’
Eurostar passengers wait for train services to resume at London St Pancras station today
They boarded that train at 7pm then waited for train crew to arrive from an inbound train, and left London at 9pm – due into Lille at 11.10pm French time (10.10pm GMT).
However their train halted before entering the Channel Tunnel at about 9.30pm, before the power went off and they sat with emergency lighting until about 2.30am.
A locomotive then arrived to move the train to an area with power and they were sat near Folkestone. They finally arrived in Lille at 7.08am, about 12 hours after boarding.
The passenger told the Mail that they finally arrived in Lille at 7.08am – after 3.30am that they were awaiting news on whether they will get to Lille for the New Year or have to return to London.
Dennis Van Der Steen was on a train from London to Amsterdam which left St Pancras at 8.49pm last night, but stopped before it reached the Channel Tunnel.
He said the service waited for six hours at the entrance to the tunnel with no power, before turning back to London.
Mr Van Der Steen told BBC News: ‘We hope to be home for New Year’s Eve and celebrate with family and friends. The train is dark, and the passengers are sleeping and waiting, and they’re also very worried.’
Meanwhile a French passenger on the 7.01pm train to Paris last night also told the BBC they were stuck on board the service in London as of 3am.
He described the mood as ‘pretty chill’ with ‘people sleeping and kids playing’, but the crew were ‘on no sleep’ and were dealing with some ‘angry passengers’.
Another passenger stuck overnight on a train from London was X user @yssf_io who complained at 1.28am that there was ‘no electricity, no toilet, no info’.
He tweeted at 0.43am that he was ‘currently stuck in the Eurostar, it’s been five hours’ – and at 6.09am said ‘we have electricity, eight hours after being stopped’, adding that they had ‘finally’ started moving towards Paris at 7.34am.
At 9.46am, he tweeted from the Gare du Nord that he was ‘free after 13 hours on a train that was supposed to be two hours’.
France24 senior journalist Annette Young tweeted early this morning: ‘The problems for Eurostar continue despite the opening of one tunnel.
‘People have been stuck on one crowded train from London to Paris for five plus hours after coming to a halt near Dover. According to people onboard, it has no power; no heating or functioning toilets.
‘Staff forced to ration announcements over the PA and people on board still have no clue if they are heading back to London or towards Paris.’
TikTok user Eloise De Marco posted a TikTok video on board a stranded Eurostar train with the caption: ‘When you’ve been stuck on the Eurostar for 10 hours’
Other video showed the ‘scary’ moment passengers were evacuated from the broken-down LeShuttle train in the middle of the tunnel.
TikTok user HollyJohn82 filmed the scenes as those on board a broken-down LeShuttle train were evacuated and walked into a service tunnel which runs in between the two rail tunnels
Eurostar passengers wait for train services to resume at London St Pancras station today
Travellers revealed how they tried to stay calm when being told to leave the train from Folkestone to Calais after it stopped about 45 minutes into their journey.
TikTok user HollyJohn82 filmed the scenes as those on board were evacuated off the train and walked into a service tunnel which runs in between the two rail tunnels.
Her photographs and videos show passengers being addressed underground by the emergency services who came to their aid during the incident yesterday.
Posting these in a clip under the caption ‘POV – Your train on LeShuttle breaks when you’re in the tunnel’, Holly wrote: ‘There is a service tunnel runs through the middle.
‘We got driven in golf buggy type vehicles to France end and then they towed the train about 9am this morning when they realised they definitely couldn’t fix it in the tunnel.
‘Got our cars back about 10am. It was definitely a bit scary but you’re already down there so just have to try stay calm.’
She said ‘we were already a third of the way in roughly’ and ‘we had to try just keep calm somehow’, saying the staff were ‘fab to be fair’ and gave them ‘reassurance’.
The Channel Tunnel – often called the ‘Chunnel’ for short – accommodates LeShuttle vehicle-carrying trains between the UK and France as well as Eurostar services.
The tunnel is operated by the company Getlink and is made up of three tunnels – two rail tunnels, used for freight and passenger trains, and the service tunnel.
A statement on the Eurostar website this morning said: ‘Services have resumed today following a power issue in the Channel Tunnel yesterday and some further issues with rail infrastructure overnight.
‘We plan to run all of our services today, however due to knock-on impacts there may still be some delays and possible last-minute cancellations. Please check for live updates on the status of your train on the Train status and timetables page.’
A spokeswoman then told the Daily Mail in an update at 10am today: ‘Eurostar services are running today following a power issue in the Channel Tunnel yesterday.
‘We plan to run all of our services today, however due to knock on impacts there may still be some delays and possible last-minute cancellations. Customers are advised to check for live updates on the status of their train on the Eurostar website.’
Eurostar added that it was offering affected customers ‘enhanced compensation’, including a full refund of their ticket and 150 per cent of their ticket price as an e-voucher.
The operator has also put on an extra train from London to Paris today.
A train driver for Eurostar sent this image of apparent cable damage within the Channel Tunnel to BBC News after receiving it in a WhatsApp group for current and former Eurostar drivers
Passengers queue to enter the Eurotunnel site in Folkestone in Kent yesterday afternoon
Drivers line up at the barrier at the Folkestone end of the Channel Tunnel in Kent yesterday
Today’s first train from St Pancras to Gare du Nord station in Paris, scheduled for 6.01am, was cancelled.
The next train, the 6.31am departure to Paris, left at 7.06am and is due into the Gare du Nord at 10.24am local time – over half an hour after its scheduled arrival time of 9.49am.
This was listed as delayed ‘due to a technical problem on another train’ in the tunnel.
LeShuttle was also affected by the power issue. After warning of six-hour delays at the Folkestone terminal yesterday, the operator said that had dropped to 30 minutes this morning.
Six-hour waits remained in Calais, but passengers were advised to check-in as planned.
The Independent’s travel correspondent Simon Calder said this morning that it was ‘an absolutely miserable day for at least 25,000 passengers’ yesterday.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Eurostar in general runs pretty smoothly, as does LeShuttle – but when it goes wrong it goes wrong, it goes very wrong indeed.’
Speaking about the combination of an overhead power supply issue and a broken down LeShuttle train, Mr Calder added: ‘If you get two problems converging like that, then you don’t really have much hope.
‘At this time of year, everyone’s very invested in their journeys… there’s much more pressure than you might get on a wet Wednesday in February.’
The Channel Tunnel accommodates Eurostar services as well as LeShuttle vehicle-carrying trains between the UK and France.
Getlink, which operates the Channel Tunnel, said that ‘an incident related to the power supply to trains occurred last night in part of the Channel Tunnel, affecting train and shuttle traffic’.
Yesterday, Eurostar staff at St Pancras station were seen handing out water bottles to people waiting by a cordon who were caught up in the delays.
Cars hoping to cross the Eurotunnel caused traffic jams on the approach to the Folkestone terminal.
LeShuttle passenger Tim Brown said he had been stuck in his car on the train at the Calais terminal for more than three hours with ‘no access to food or water’.
Mr Brown, who was trying to get back to the UK after spending Christmas in Germany, was travelling with his dogs Rilo and Vinnie who he said are ‘hating life’ stuck on the train.
‘The fact that nobody has come around offering everybody a bottle of water is what has shocked me the most,’ he said.
‘I know things happen, but surely that would be an easy way to help.’