From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62655148

Dozens of people were left stranded for hours inside the Channel Tunnel
after a train from Calais to Folkestone appeared to have broken down.

Footage emerged showing Eurotunnel Le Shuttle passengers being evacuated
through an emergency service tunnel after having to abandon their vehicles.

They were eventually transferred to a replacement train and taken to the
Folkestone terminal in Kent.

Le Shuttle said the train's alarms went off and this needed to be
investigated.

"The service tunnel was terrifying," said Sarah Fellows, 37, from
Birmingham to PA news agency after the incident on Tuesday evening.

"It was like a disaster movie. You were just walking into the abyss not
knowing what was happening. We all had to stay under the sea in this big
queue.

"There was a woman crying in the tunnel, another woman having a panic
attack who was travelling alone."
Another passenger, who did not want to be named, told PA: "Several people
were freaking out about being down in the service tunnel, it's a bit of a
weird place... We were stuck down there for at least five hours."
Le Shuttle, which transports vehicles through the tunnel, initially said on
Twitter a train had broken down, but later added to the BBC that a train
had not actually broken down, but the alarms going off meant investigations
were needed.

All those on board were transferred at 20:22 BST (19:22 GMT) "in line with
safety procedures and as a comfort measure", Le Shuttle said.

A passenger contacted the BBC before 17:45 saying they were on the train
which had stopped. The passenger complained of poor communication, with the
tannoy system not working properly.

Another traveller tweeted that people had to abandon their vehicles on the
train and were being escorted out on foot.

The Le Shuttle spokesperson later said that passenger traffic was light on
the Folkestone side.

But customers travelling from Calais were advised not to travel to the
terminal on Tuesday night.

"Due to the earlier train fault, we advise you not to travel to the
terminal tonight," Le Shuttle added. "Please arrive after 6am tomorrow."

——

And from
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/24/eurotunnel-passengers-evacuated-train-breaks-english-channel/>

Eurotunnel passengers had to be evacuated from a train after it broke down
beneath the English Channel.

They were transferred to a cargo train but complained of being stuck in the
sub-sea tunnel for nearly five hours, citing issues with the replacement
transport.

The initial breakdown late on Tuesday affected the 3.50pm Eurotunnel Le
Shuttle service from Calais to Folkestone and led to hundreds of passengers
being ushered into a service tunnel.

Videos on social media showed holidaymakers walking through the alternate
tunnel alongside the 31-mile rail route between Britain and France, some
with suitcases and dogs.

Meanwhile travellers in Calais were told to stay away from the terminal
until 6am on Wednesday, with pictures showing gridlock at the shuttle
terminal late into Tuesday evening.

A spokesman for Eurotunnel Le Shuttle said: "A train has broken down in the
tunnel and we are in the process of transferring customers to a separate
passenger shuttle via the service tunnel, to return to our Folkestone
terminal.

"We apologise sincerely for this inconvenience."

The spokesman added: "Due to the earlier train fault, we advise you not to
travel to the terminal tonight.

"Please arrive after 6am tomorrow."

Michael Harrison, from Cranbrook, Kent, one of those on the evacuated
train, told the PA news agency: "We got on the 3.50pm crossing,
approximately 10 minutes in the lights went out and the train stopped.

Mr Harrison said they were told "they needed to investigate an issue with
the wheels", which "took approximately one and a half hours for them to
investigate and obviously not find anything".

'There were gasps of incredulity'

He said they "reset things" and set off for another five minutes: "It
happened again at which time we waited a further couple of hours to decide
they couldn't see a problem but had to evacuate the train to another train.

"After further waiting we left the train through the emergency link tunnel
to the service tunnel.

"We then walked approximately 10 minutes to a train in front of the
stricken train.

"This was a bus carriage where we got transported to Folkestone. That train
then stopped as it couldn't get traction, presumably as it was long and had
no weight on it. There were gasps of incredulity when that was announced.

"We finally arrived in Folkestone six hours after boarding."

Another passenger who was evacuated, but did not want to be named, told PA
that "several people were freaking out about being down in the service
tunnel, it's a bit of a weird place".

He added: "We were stuck down there for at least five hours.

"If I've got a gripe it's that they knew several-hundred people were
arriving at Folkestone who hadn't eaten for five, six or more hours and
there was absolutely nothing for us here.

"Just huge queues for Burger King."

'Caught in the trap'

Journalist Bruce Atkinson, caught up in the delays at Calais, tweeted:
"Sitting in the boarding queue at Calais with no idea how long we will be
waiting. Been here four hours so far."

Jonel Schwarz added on Twitter: "We've been caught in the trap for over
four hours. Had we been given any info sooner we never would have entered
the trap in the first place."

Kate Scott, 43, from Surrey who was travelling with her husband and two
children from a family holiday in France, told PA: "We're finally on the
road now after almost eight hours from Calais to Folkestone, when it should
be 35 mins.

"The heat-sensor alarm went off so they had to do a full train inspection,
then we got going again and five or 10 minutes later we stopped again and
they did the same thing again.

"Three or four hours after leaving Calais they said, 'look we're not going
anywhere, we've got to evacuate' so they got us on to another train. It was
hot, there was no air con, they gave out water but we didn't really know
what was going on.

"They told us to get out of our cars and get to the front of the train,
where we waited for nearly an hour with no information at all in the
boiling hot. People were getting a bit agitated.

"They eventually opened the doors and we had to walk down the train, down
the service tunnel where we were held for another 40 minutes for the
evacuation train."

Sarah Fellows, 37, from Birmingham, will have taken 18 hours to return home
from a family holiday in France after the "utter carnage" of the
evacuation.

She told PA: "The service tunnel was terrifying. It was like a disaster
movie."

"You were just walking into the abyss not knowing what was happening. We
all had to stay under the sea in this big queue.

"Fire and rescue were there. There was a woman crying in the tunnel,
another woman having a panic attack who was travelling alone.

"They were expecting really older people to walk for a mile down the middle
of a tunnel under the sea.

"It was utter carnage when we arrived in Folkestone as they hadn't really
prepared for us arriving. It just wasn't organised of how to evacuate that
train.

"I was panicking at one point and Border Force told us the tunnel had been
evacuated one other time in the last 17 years, not recently. "

Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> wrote:
> From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62655148
>
> Dozens of people were left stranded for hours inside the Channel Tunnel
> after a train from Calais to Folkestone appeared to have broken down.
>
> Footage emerged showing Eurotunnel Le Shuttle passengers being evacuated
> through an emergency service tunnel after having to abandon their vehicles.
>
> They were eventually transferred to a replacement train and taken to the
> Folkestone terminal in Kent.
>
> Le Shuttle said the train's alarms went off and this needed to be
> investigated.
>
> "The service tunnel was terrifying," said Sarah Fellows, 37, from
> Birmingham to PA news agency after the incident on Tuesday evening.
>
> "It was like a disaster movie. You were just walking into the abyss not
> knowing what was happening. We all had to stay under the sea in this big
> queue.
>
> "There was a woman crying in the tunnel, another woman having a panic
> attack who was travelling alone."
> Another passenger, who did not want to be named, told PA: "Several people
> were freaking out about being down in the service tunnel, it's a bit of a
> weird place... We were stuck down there for at least five hours."
> Le Shuttle, which transports vehicles through the tunnel, initially said on
> Twitter a train had broken down, but later added to the BBC that a train
> had not actually broken down, but the alarms going off meant investigations
> were needed.
>
> All those on board were transferred at 20:22 BST (19:22 GMT) "in line with
> safety procedures and as a comfort measure", Le Shuttle said.
>
> A passenger contacted the BBC before 17:45 saying they were on the train
> which had stopped. The passenger complained of poor communication, with the
> tannoy system not working properly.
>
> Another traveller tweeted that people had to abandon their vehicles on the
> train and were being escorted out on foot.
>
> The Le Shuttle spokesperson later said that passenger traffic was light on
> the Folkestone side.
>
> But customers travelling from Calais were advised not to travel to the
> terminal on Tuesday night.
>
> "Due to the earlier train fault, we advise you not to travel to the
> terminal tonight," Le Shuttle added. "Please arrive after 6am tomorrow."
>
> ——
>
> And from
> <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/24/eurotunnel-passengers-evacuated-train-breaks-english-channel/>
>
> Eurotunnel passengers had to be evacuated from a train after it broke down
> beneath the English Channel.
>
> They were transferred to a cargo train but complained of being stuck in the
> sub-sea tunnel for nearly five hours, citing issues with the replacement
> transport.
>
> The initial breakdown late on Tuesday affected the 3.50pm Eurotunnel Le
> Shuttle service from Calais to Folkestone and led to hundreds of passengers
> being ushered into a service tunnel.
>
> Videos on social media showed holidaymakers walking through the alternate
> tunnel alongside the 31-mile rail route between Britain and France, some
> with suitcases and dogs.
>
> Meanwhile travellers in Calais were told to stay away from the terminal
> until 6am on Wednesday, with pictures showing gridlock at the shuttle
> terminal late into Tuesday evening.
>
> A spokesman for Eurotunnel Le Shuttle said: "A train has broken down in the
> tunnel and we are in the process of transferring customers to a separate
> passenger shuttle via the service tunnel, to return to our Folkestone
> terminal.
>
> "We apologise sincerely for this inconvenience."
>
> The spokesman added: "Due to the earlier train fault, we advise you not to
> travel to the terminal tonight.
>
> "Please arrive after 6am tomorrow."
>
> Michael Harrison, from Cranbrook, Kent, one of those on the evacuated
> train, told the PA news agency: "We got on the 3.50pm crossing,
> approximately 10 minutes in the lights went out and the train stopped.
>
> Mr Harrison said they were told "they needed to investigate an issue with
> the wheels", which "took approximately one and a half hours for them to
> investigate and obviously not find anything".
>
> 'There were gasps of incredulity'
>
> He said they "reset things" and set off for another five minutes: "It
> happened again at which time we waited a further couple of hours to decide
> they couldn't see a problem but had to evacuate the train to another train.
>
> "After further waiting we left the train through the emergency link tunnel
> to the service tunnel.
>
> "We then walked approximately 10 minutes to a train in front of the
> stricken train.
>
> "This was a bus carriage where we got transported to Folkestone. That train
> then stopped as it couldn't get traction, presumably as it was long and had
> no weight on it. There were gasps of incredulity when that was announced.
>
> "We finally arrived in Folkestone six hours after boarding."
>
> Another passenger who was evacuated, but did not want to be named, told PA
> that "several people were freaking out about being down in the service
> tunnel, it's a bit of a weird place".
>
> He added: "We were stuck down there for at least five hours.
>
> "If I've got a gripe it's that they knew several-hundred people were
> arriving at Folkestone who hadn't eaten for five, six or more hours and
> there was absolutely nothing for us here.
>
> "Just huge queues for Burger King."
>
> 'Caught in the trap'
>
> Journalist Bruce Atkinson, caught up in the delays at Calais, tweeted:
> "Sitting in the boarding queue at Calais with no idea how long we will be
> waiting. Been here four hours so far."
>
> Jonel Schwarz added on Twitter: "We've been caught in the trap for over
> four hours. Had we been given any info sooner we never would have entered
> the trap in the first place."
>
> Kate Scott, 43, from Surrey who was travelling with her husband and two
> children from a family holiday in France, told PA: "We're finally on the
> road now after almost eight hours from Calais to Folkestone, when it should
> be 35 mins.
>
> "The heat-sensor alarm went off so they had to do a full train inspection,
> then we got going again and five or 10 minutes later we stopped again and
> they did the same thing again.
>
> "Three or four hours after leaving Calais they said, 'look we're not going
> anywhere, we've got to evacuate' so they got us on to another train. It was
> hot, there was no air con, they gave out water but we didn't really know
> what was going on.
>
> "They told us to get out of our cars and get to the front of the train,
> where we waited for nearly an hour with no information at all in the
> boiling hot. People were getting a bit agitated.
>
> "They eventually opened the doors and we had to walk down the train, down
> the service tunnel where we were held for another 40 minutes for the
> evacuation train."
>
> Sarah Fellows, 37, from Birmingham, will have taken 18 hours to return home
> from a family holiday in France after the "utter carnage" of the
> evacuation.
>
> She told PA: "The service tunnel was terrifying. It was like a disaster
> movie."
>
> "You were just walking into the abyss not knowing what was happening. We
> all had to stay under the sea in this big queue.
>
> "Fire and rescue were there. There was a woman crying in the tunnel,
> another woman having a panic attack who was travelling alone.
>
> "They were expecting really older people to walk for a mile down the middle
> of a tunnel under the sea.
>
> "It was utter carnage when we arrived in Folkestone as they hadn't really
> prepared for us arriving. It just wasn't organised of how to evacuate that
> train.
>
> "I was panicking at one point and Border Force told us the tunnel had been
> evacuated one other time in the last 17 years, not recently. "
>

The general impression I get from those gripes which admittedly have
probably been filtered to be the most melodramatic is that a good
proportion of the population are too delicate to live without minders.
God help them if something really life threatening happened or loss of
power for hours which is an increasingly likely scenario as we approach
Winter, or some other serious event like Putin finally flipping his lid and
lobbing a few missiles this way.

On 24/08/2022 08:52, Recliner wrote:
> From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62655148
>

>
> And from
> <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/24/eurotunnel-passengers-evacuated-train-breaks-english-channel/>
>

The 3.50PM Tuesday shuttle is obviously a dodgy train :-) :-), we were
delayed on it for 40 minutes a couple of weeks ago while they tried to
sort a problem. No announcements then either.

On 24/08/2022 15:12, Dick wrote:
> On 24/08/2022 08:52, Recliner wrote:
>>  From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62655148
>>
>
>
>>
>> And from
>>
>> <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/24/eurotunnel-passengers-evacuated-train-breaks-english-channel/>
>>
>
> The 3.50PM Tuesday shuttle is obviously a dodgy train :-) :-), we were
> delayed on it for 40 minutes a couple of weeks ago while they tried to
> sort a problem. No announcements then either.
>

Probably unlikely, but it would be interesting to know if the diagrams
are such that it could have been the same train.

On 24/08/2022 11:09, Marland wrote:
> Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> wrote:
>> From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62655148
>>
>> Dozens of people were left stranded for hours inside the Channel Tunnel
>> after a train from Calais to Folkestone appeared to have broken down.
>>
>> Footage emerged showing Eurotunnel Le Shuttle passengers being evacuated
>> through an emergency service tunnel after having to abandon their vehicles.
>>
>> They were eventually transferred to a replacement train and taken to the
>> Folkestone terminal in Kent.
>>
>> Le Shuttle said the train's alarms went off and this needed to be
>> investigated.
>>
>> "The service tunnel was terrifying," said Sarah Fellows, 37, from
>> Birmingham to PA news agency after the incident on Tuesday evening.
>>
>> "It was like a disaster movie. You were just walking into the abyss not
>> knowing what was happening. We all had to stay under the sea in this big
>> queue.
>>
>> "There was a woman crying in the tunnel, another woman having a panic
>> attack who was travelling alone."
>> Another passenger, who did not want to be named, told PA: "Several people
>> were freaking out about being down in the service tunnel, it's a bit of a
>> weird place... We were stuck down there for at least five hours."
>> Le Shuttle, which transports vehicles through the tunnel, initially said on
>> Twitter a train had broken down, but later added to the BBC that a train
>> had not actually broken down, but the alarms going off meant investigations
>> were needed.
>>
>> All those on board were transferred at 20:22 BST (19:22 GMT) "in line with
>> safety procedures and as a comfort measure", Le Shuttle said.
>>
>> A passenger contacted the BBC before 17:45 saying they were on the train
>> which had stopped. The passenger complained of poor communication, with the
>> tannoy system not working properly.
>>
>> Another traveller tweeted that people had to abandon their vehicles on the
>> train and were being escorted out on foot.
>>
>> The Le Shuttle spokesperson later said that passenger traffic was light on
>> the Folkestone side.
>>
>> But customers travelling from Calais were advised not to travel to the
>> terminal on Tuesday night.
>>
>> "Due to the earlier train fault, we advise you not to travel to the
>> terminal tonight," Le Shuttle added. "Please arrive after 6am tomorrow."
>>
>> ——
>>
>> And from
>> <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/24/eurotunnel-passengers-evacuated-train-breaks-english-channel/>
>>
>> Eurotunnel passengers had to be evacuated from a train after it broke down
>> beneath the English Channel.
>>
>> They were transferred to a cargo train but complained of being stuck in the
>> sub-sea tunnel for nearly five hours, citing issues with the replacement
>> transport.
>>
>> The initial breakdown late on Tuesday affected the 3.50pm Eurotunnel Le
>> Shuttle service from Calais to Folkestone and led to hundreds of passengers
>> being ushered into a service tunnel.
>>
>> Videos on social media showed holidaymakers walking through the alternate
>> tunnel alongside the 31-mile rail route between Britain and France, some
>> with suitcases and dogs.
>>
>> Meanwhile travellers in Calais were told to stay away from the terminal
>> until 6am on Wednesday, with pictures showing gridlock at the shuttle
>> terminal late into Tuesday evening.
>>
>> A spokesman for Eurotunnel Le Shuttle said: "A train has broken down in the
>> tunnel and we are in the process of transferring customers to a separate
>> passenger shuttle via the service tunnel, to return to our Folkestone
>> terminal.
>>
>> "We apologise sincerely for this inconvenience."
>>
>> The spokesman added: "Due to the earlier train fault, we advise you not to
>> travel to the terminal tonight.
>>
>> "Please arrive after 6am tomorrow."
>>
>> Michael Harrison, from Cranbrook, Kent, one of those on the evacuated
>> train, told the PA news agency: "We got on the 3.50pm crossing,
>> approximately 10 minutes in the lights went out and the train stopped.
>>
>> Mr Harrison said they were told "they needed to investigate an issue with
>> the wheels", which "took approximately one and a half hours for them to
>> investigate and obviously not find anything".
>>
>> 'There were gasps of incredulity'
>>
>> He said they "reset things" and set off for another five minutes: "It
>> happened again at which time we waited a further couple of hours to decide
>> they couldn't see a problem but had to evacuate the train to another train.
>>
>> "After further waiting we left the train through the emergency link tunnel
>> to the service tunnel.
>>
>> "We then walked approximately 10 minutes to a train in front of the
>> stricken train.
>>
>> "This was a bus carriage where we got transported to Folkestone. That train
>> then stopped as it couldn't get traction, presumably as it was long and had
>> no weight on it. There were gasps of incredulity when that was announced.
>>
>> "We finally arrived in Folkestone six hours after boarding."
>>
>> Another passenger who was evacuated, but did not want to be named, told PA
>> that "several people were freaking out about being down in the service
>> tunnel, it's a bit of a weird place".
>>
>> He added: "We were stuck down there for at least five hours.
>>
>> "If I've got a gripe it's that they knew several-hundred people were
>> arriving at Folkestone who hadn't eaten for five, six or more hours and
>> there was absolutely nothing for us here.
>>
>> "Just huge queues for Burger King."
>>
>> 'Caught in the trap'
>>
>> Journalist Bruce Atkinson, caught up in the delays at Calais, tweeted:
>> "Sitting in the boarding queue at Calais with no idea how long we will be
>> waiting. Been here four hours so far."
>>
>> Jonel Schwarz added on Twitter: "We've been caught in the trap for over
>> four hours. Had we been given any info sooner we never would have entered
>> the trap in the first place."
>>
>> Kate Scott, 43, from Surrey who was travelling with her husband and two
>> children from a family holiday in France, told PA: "We're finally on the
>> road now after almost eight hours from Calais to Folkestone, when it should
>> be 35 mins.
>>
>> "The heat-sensor alarm went off so they had to do a full train inspection,
>> then we got going again and five or 10 minutes later we stopped again and
>> they did the same thing again.
>>
>> "Three or four hours after leaving Calais they said, 'look we're not going
>> anywhere, we've got to evacuate' so they got us on to another train. It was
>> hot, there was no air con, they gave out water but we didn't really know
>> what was going on.
>>
>> "They told us to get out of our cars and get to the front of the train,
>> where we waited for nearly an hour with no information at all in the
>> boiling hot. People were getting a bit agitated.
>>
>> "They eventually opened the doors and we had to walk down the train, down
>> the service tunnel where we were held for another 40 minutes for the
>> evacuation train."
>>
>> Sarah Fellows, 37, from Birmingham, will have taken 18 hours to return home
>> from a family holiday in France after the "utter carnage" of the
>> evacuation.
>>
>> She told PA: "The service tunnel was terrifying. It was like a disaster
>> movie."
>>
>> "You were just walking into the abyss not knowing what was happening. We
>> all had to stay under the sea in this big queue.
>>
>> "Fire and rescue were there. There was a woman crying in the tunnel,
>> another woman having a panic attack who was travelling alone.
>>
>> "They were expecting really older people to walk for a mile down the middle
>> of a tunnel under the sea.
>>
>> "It was utter carnage when we arrived in Folkestone as they hadn't really
>> prepared for us arriving. It just wasn't organised of how to evacuate that
>> train.
>>
>> "I was panicking at one point and Border Force told us the tunnel had been
>> evacuated one other time in the last 17 years, not recently. "
>>
>
> The general impression I get from those gripes which admittedly have
> probably been filtered to be the most melodramatic is that a good
> proportion of the population are too delicate to live without minders.
> God help them if something really life threatening happened or loss of
> power for hours which is an increasingly likely scenario as we approach
> Winter, or some other serious event like Putin finally flipping his lid and
> lobbing a few missiles this way.

It does not give a lot confidence in their ability to deal with a fire
on the train or just in the tunnel. Hope they do not carry much cheese
on the trains.

On 24/08/2022 11:09, Marland wrote:

> I blame Thatcher,

Well, without her there might not have been trains conking out in the
Chunnel...

--
Arthur Figgis