Eurostar ‘chaos’ reported at St Pancras as check-in hit by queues resulting from ‘technical issue’
Eurostar passengers had been pressured to queue alongside roads outdoors London’s St Pancras station on Tuesday – the most recent chaos to hit travellers this week as airports proceed to wrestle.
A prepare fault led to lengthy delays for these checking in to depart for Paris and Brussels.
Angry passengers took to social media, with one Twitter person calling it an “absolute shambles.” whereas one other estimated that there was “more than 500m of queue”.
Ian Freeman posted an image of heavy queues, saying: “Total shambles at #stpancras #eurostar @EurostarUK.
“Thousands of people, queues snaking around the station, out into the street and back in again. Shocking mismanagement.”
Shortly after 10.20am, Edwin Smith tweeted: “We’re queuing out of @StPancrasInt on the street for @Eurostar @EurostarUK. Chaos. No explanation offered…”
A Eurostar spokesperson mentioned it was resulting from a “technical issue” which had delayed one service earlier this morning.
The spokesperson mentioned: “There was a technical fault with one of our sets earlier, which put it out of service. As such, unfortunately, that particular service left London over an hour late.
“There has since been a small backlog of trains since then delayed by around 30 minutes but otherwise we would expect this to clear shortly.”
Customers reported that queues continued, with Dr Diane Nutt tweeting: “At St Pancras waiting to join an enormous #Eurostar queue. I find this part of travelling enormously stressful.”
It got here after shopper group Which? mentioned the “blame game” over flight disruption forward of the platinum jubilee financial institution vacation is “no help” to passengers as hundreds face cancellations and delays day-after-day.
Trade unions and the Labour Party accused the federal government of failing to offer sufficient help to the aviation sector, which is going through employees shortages.
Thousands of staff had been laid off throughout the coronavirus pandemic as restrictions meant many individuals didn’t wish to journey abroad. The authorities insists the aviation business is “responsible for making sure they have enough staff”.
Rory Boland, editor of shopper journal Which? Travel, mentioned: “The blame game over staff shortages and flight cancellations is no help at all to passengers, who need instant action to bring an end to the airport chaos that is causing so much misery and leaving many people out of pocket, with little hope of getting all their money back.”
A spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority said the regulator understands the impact of disruption on customers, which is “precisely why there are guidelines in place to guard customers in these circumstances”.
They went on: “We have steerage on cancellations and flight disruption printed on our web site for customers, and proceed to interact with airways and airports to remind them of their obligations and ensure passenger rights are upheld.”
Airlines UK, the industry body representing UK-registered carriers, said in a statement that the UK’s aviation sector has only had “a matter of weeks” to recover after being “grounded for nearly two years”.
All remaining coronavirus restrictions for people entering the UK were lifted on 18 March.
