London travel chaos as Euston services canceled and last-minute strike hits Eurostar

Passengers in London have been hit by chaos as the Christmas getaway gets underway, with trains canceled from Euston and a last-minute Eurostar strike affecting St Pancras.

Eurostar initially said that all journeys through the Channel Tunnel were stopped from noon until 15.30, but later updated this information to say that all services were canceled until 19.00.

The reason for this was a “last minute strike” of staff at the Getlink operator. All passengers traveling from St Pancras to the continent have been advised to “postpone their journey today if possible”.

The industrial action is affecting Eurostar, which operates passenger services to and from London St Pancras, and Eurotunnel Le Shuttle, which operates trains carrying vehicles to and from Folkestone.

Meanwhile, there was “serious disruption” to trains from London Euston on Thursday after overhead cables near Hemel Hempstead were damaged.

There was also travel chaos at Heathrow airport after two dozen domestic and European flights to and from British Airways’ transport hub were canceled due to Storm Pia.

It is understood all trains from London Euston were suspended on Thursday, but Network Rail said some services started appearing on departure boards around 3pm.

He said a contingency schedule would be in place and disruption was expected when services resumed on Thursday afternoon.

Hundreds of passengers were trapped outside the station after gates were blocked to prevent them from entering.

One passenger wrote on social media site

Engineers assessed damage after a serious fault was detected in overhead cables at Watford Junction on Thursday afternoon.

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Network Rail said it was working to resolve the issue with one of the cables that power trains on the West Coast Main Line at Bourne End, Buckinghamshire.

Crews were working to get at least two of the four lines through the opened area to allow the emergency schedule to work.

According to London Northwestern Railway, all lines in the area remain closed until further notice.

Replacement buses currently run from Northampton to Milton Keynes and from Milton Keynes to Watford Junction.

There was a separate outage on Avanti West Coast services from Euston to Manchester, while all lines were blocked after a bag was caught in the power lines on Thursday morning.

James Dean, Network Rail’s West Coast South route director, said on Thursday afternoon: “I apologize to passengers affected by overhead lines arriving near Euston station and the major disruption this has caused to journeys.

“Our team of engineers are on site assessing the damage but it is too early to know what caused this. “Our focus is on resolving the issue as quickly as possible.

“I would encourage people to check www.nationalrail.co.uk before setting off on their journey as we work hard to get passengers back on the road safely.”

Network Rail said an earlier issue on the East Coast Main Line caused by a tree falling on the railway near Newark had been fixed and trains were running from King’s Cross with delays.

Network Rail previously told passengers: “Our engineers are attempting to remove a bag stuck on the power line between Stoke and Crewe.”

London Northwest services between Stafford and Crewe were also affected.

It is currently not possible for passengers to book train tickets for Thursday departures via the Eurostar website.

A spokesperson for Eurostar added: “Affected customers will receive direct communication about their journey and we would advise travelers to postpone their journey today if possible.” We are monitoring the situation closely as it develops and further updates will be communicated as soon as possible. “

Getlink, the French company that operates the Channel Tunnel, said: “Today’s call for strike action by representatives of Eurotunnel’s French site staff unions has resulted in a complete disruption of service and the closure of our terminals in France and the UK.”

“We apologize for the delay in your journey.” Eurotunnel said. “Further updates will be provided shortly.” Meanwhile, strong winds caused by Storm Pia were also affecting train services mainly in the north of the country, including the whole of Scotland, north Wales and parts of East Anglia, the Midlands and the north west. and in the north-east of England.

It comes after South Western Railway warned there would be serious disruption to some of its services from Waterloo between Wednesday, December 27 and Friday, December 29 due to landslide repairs.

The train company advised passengers to travel only if absolutely necessary on those days.

The services affected are those operating between Woking and Basingstoke.

South Western said this was because it needed to access two of four lines to repair a landslide that occurred in late November.

For three days, some of the first services from London Waterloo to Woking and Basingstoke will start at around 7am each day.

Some stations, such as Alton or Brookwood, may not be served directly from Waterloo, while others will only be served once an hour.

South Western Railway Chief Operating Officer Stuart Meek said: “This is a complex repair that our colleagues at Network Rail have worked hard to complete.

“To make further progress they will once again need access to two of the four tracks in the area, which, although inconvenient, is the best option available.

“As we will only have half the current number of tracks, we will need to reduce our services as we did a few weeks ago. Our advice to customers is that if their trains run between Woking and Basingstoke, they should only travel if absolutely necessary.”