Passengers stuck on Eurostar for night without light or food

Passengers spent a night stranded on Eurostar trains without food or light after a power failure in France delayed services by up to 11 hours.

Passengers spent a night stranded on Eurostar trains without food or light after a power failure in France delayed services by up to 11 hours.

Thousands of people travelling between St Pancras, Paris and Brussels suffered nightmare journeys after snow brought down a power cable.

Trains were either cancelled or slowed to a crawl as they were switched on to domestic lines and many people spent hours trapped in the Channel Tunnel.

There were further delays today as four trains were cancelled.

Passengers arriving at St Pancras International complained of poor communication by Eurostar staff and said their handling of the situation was a “mess”. Sophia Abdel, a 19-year-old student, said: “I got to London at midnight after 10 hours and 23 minutes on the train. I was mad, tired and annoyed.

“On the train there was no electricity, no food, it was dark. I just had to sit and wait. The staff didn’t do anything. I was supposed to be in London for study reasons but I’m going back to Paris today because I just want to be in my home.”

The usual journey time is two hours 15 minutes.

Models attending Paris Fashion Week were among those who suffered long delays.

Poppy Delevingne wrote on Twitter that she was “deliriously tired” after taking eight hours to reach Paris.

Laura Bailey, the former face of Marks & Spencer, tweeted that she was suffering from “cabin fashion fever” after her train was stuck for four hours. On reaching her hotel, she wrote, she “blew a kiss to the receptionist as he gave me my key”.

Designer Henry Holland wrote simply: “Eurostar disaster.”

Hundreds of exhausted passengers were given emergency accommodation on two TGV trains when they finally reached Paris so they could rest after missing their connections.

Laurent Girard, who was on his way to the Alps with friends, said: “It’s pretty depressing spending 10 hours on a train and then being told you can rest in another train. None of us got any sleep at all — it was awful. We’re all completely sick of trains now.”