Salt causes Eurostar chaos

Salt from sea spray whipped up by Sunday's gales was being blamed today for halting today's Eurostar services.

The salt crystalised on tracks and overhead cables at Calais, cutting the power supply and halting the 180mph trains between London, Paris and Brussels last night.

A total of 15 trains were affected. More than 6,000 passengers were stranded yesterday and problems with the power supply threatened to wipe out Eurostar services for the rest of today.

Guillaume Pepier of French Eurostar operators SNCF said: "Electricity current in the Calais region cannot be guaranteed today. Work on the cables continued throughout the night but it was not sufficient and this morning a new short circuit occurred.

"The sea salt deposits which caused the short circuit are very thick."

Meanwhile, domestic services - including busy commuters routes across the South and South-East - faced more delays and cancellations today due to a combination of damage caused by the storms and leaves on the line.

Although the situation is gradually improving more delays are expected tonight. There was severe disruption for North Kent services this morning when a commuter train became stuck because of leaves on the line slip at St Mary Cray station.

Both Connex and South West Trains, the two busiest commuter operators in the UK, blamed the leaf problems for services running up to 30 minutes.

A spokeswoman for Connex said: "Services face disruption again today due to the effects of damage caused by the storm. We are getting back to normal but slowly."

There was also severe disruption for long-distance commuters using Great Western services into Paddington. This was due to signalling problems. Commuters were warned to expect a severe reduction in service for the rest of the day. Anglia Railways and West Anglia Great Northern reported continuing delays and disruption, largely as a result of storm damage.

GNER East Coast Main Line services to King's Cross were subject to major delays and cancellations due to "poor rail conditions" with speed limits imposed during the storm staying in place.