 Poster: A snowHead
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So basically Eurostar were stuck between a rock and a hard place, neither of their own making. Delay the whole train till the tunnel re-opened in the morning upsetting everyone on both the outbound and probably knock-on delayed Saturday return trains or delay as late as you can and only upset the people you leave behind. Probably the lesser of two evils.
File under s**t happens and move on.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| AndrewsPeppers wrote: |
More information on what happened on Friday, 4 March 2016 at Eurostar St Pancras.
The problem was caused by French passport controls. Probably a random check on the day.
There were slight problems through the day, which got worse through the evening busy period.
Eurostar handled the delay until the last two trains due to leave St Pancras - one to Paris and the Snow train. The problem with these two trains was that there were overnight engineering works in the channel tunnel and if they missed their slot they would not be able to cross to France that night.
Eurostar would have held the Snowtrain until all passengers were aboard if it were possible to get the train through the tunnel that night.
The person I spoke to in St Pancras has worked there for twenty years and said it was the first time it has happened on this scale. However, the additional French passport checks were only implemented in April/May 2015 so does not mean it might not happen again. |
We were one of those hundreds people left behind, unable to get through checkin/security! Then had to get the early saturday morning train to paris and then get a tgv train via Lyon to Moutiers. Finally arriving at our hotel at 11pm on Saturday night.
I've sent in a complaint letter to Eurostar last week and a enclosed all my receipts. Has anyone heard from Eurostar regarding re-reimbursement yet, especially for the expensive French train tickets we had to buy? I hope they don't try and wriggle out saying it wasn't there fault and blame it on French passport control!
On the confirmation email for my complaint it said upto 14 days.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Quote: |
File under s**t happens and move on
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But consider this risk when weighing up drive vs fly vs train in future
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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No refund yet.
Actually I didn't think the onwards tickets from Paris too unreasonable - probably comparable to say London-Glasgow bought at short notice. Although I think Eurostar should have paid for these directly - it was their obligation to get us to the final destination, not just to Paris.
What was a pain was that Eurostar wouldn't arrange for through tickets, or help in purchasing the onward leg, which created a slightly stressful catch-22 situation: do we accept their offer of alternative travel to Paris if we can't be sure of onward availability? Or if we first book the Paris-alps leg with SNCF, can Eurostar get us to Paris in time? And we know that a few hundred other people are trying to arrange something very similar at exactly the same time, so tickets that are available now might not be in another 5 minutes!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I used Eurostar and TGV for a summer trip last July. Every leg of the journey was delayed. Submitted my receipts for compensation as per the booking conditions. Been waiting now since early August 2015. Given up, moving on.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Mjit wrote: |
So basically Eurostar were stuck between a rock and a hard place, neither of their own making. Delay the whole train till the tunnel re-opened in the morning upsetting everyone on both the outbound and probably knock-on delayed Saturday return trains or delay as late as you can and only upset the people you leave behind. Probably the lesser of two evils.
File under s**t happens and move on. |
Move on to another mode of transport it seems if they don't feel the slightest bit of remorse about lying to passengers at the terminal nor a support mechanism to make things right ASAP.
And it is of their own making if they choose not to staff up and have enough security etc to process peak flows efficiently.
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Well I've heard back from Eurostar, they are blaming the passport checking issues and not themselves.
They are going to refund my French TGV tickets to my bank account and said they could cover upto £50 of food/other costs but needed receipts.
Then they are offering a 75% e-voucher as a gesture of goodwill and compensation for the outbound leg which equates to £81 each. Slightly annoyed it's an e-voucher which really incurs next to nothing cost for Eurostar as the vouchers will likely be redeemed utilising spare Eurostar capacity and we will then also have to purchase cash tickets for the return leg.
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Thank you for your patience.
Firstly, I would like to say that I am sorry to hear you were among the travellers inconvenienced by the congestion affecting St Pancras on March 4th. We strive to run a punctual and reliable service, so we would like to apologise for not having done so on this occasion. I can understand how disappointing it must have been not to travel as planned.
After reading the report from the Eurostar staff on duty at that time, I would like to assure you that they did everything within their power to get passengers checked in on time.
The problem on this occasion was due to a shortage of border control officers, which unfortunately is not an easy situation to manage. As the passport control process is organised by the relevant governments in each of the three countries that we operate in, we are limited in the amount of influence that we have over this. On this occasion I am afraid that it was not possible to hold the train due to planned engineering work due to take place on the high speed line that night. Nevertheless, I can fully empathise with your frustration over this issue. Given the situation that arose on this particular occasion, I am sure that our senior management team will be liaising with the relevant contacts in charge of the border control staff to try to ensure that they provide sufficient staff to cope with the volume of passengers that will be travelling in future. We are also looking to learn lessons from the management of the situation on our end, in particular improvements in terms of communication and queue management.
##Refunds info here
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Last edited by Then you can post your own questions or snow reports... on Wed 23-03-16 15:45; edited 1 time in total
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| Quote: |
What was a pain was that Eurostar wouldn't arrange for through tickets, or help in purchasing the onward leg, which created a slightly stressful catch-22 situation: do we accept their offer of alternative travel to Paris if we can't be sure of onward availability? Or if we first book the Paris-alps leg with SNCF, can Eurostar get us to Paris in time? And we know that a few hundred other people are trying to arrange something very similar at exactly the same time, so tickets that are available now might not be in another 5 minutes!
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I asked similar to this on my complaint letter to Eurostar and receieved no response about them not having a plan B or staff prepared to communicate or even emphasise with the punters!
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