4 Trains Carrying 2,000 People Stuck Under English Channel

[Neil_M]

I also read in one report that similar failures have occasionally occurred in the past but not to such a massive degree. Which of course leaves one wondering why Eurostar and Alstom were sitting on their hands and had done nothing about investigating and fixing the problem proactively.

Because its human nature to not investigate failures that haven't happened yet?

A lot of these types of failure are due to random coincidences, maybe the snow was more fine than normal, maybe the tunnel was slightly warmer, very hard to predict, even harder to test for.

I worked on some electric locos back in the early 90s, hit by the same kind of thing. Turned out that going from pulling the train from the front to going over to push pull operation and the snow screens fitted over the air intakes being slightly too large a mesh for the snow that was flung up by the passage of the train caused all manner of electrical bangs and flashes.

 

[jis]

I also read in one report that similar failures have occasionally occurred in the past but not to such a massive degree. Which of course leaves one wondering why Eurostar and Alstom were sitting on their hands and had done nothing about investigating and fixing the problem proactively.

Because its human nature to not investigate failures that haven't happened yet?

Well, those failures did occur in the past. I was wondering what if anything was done about them. Or mayhaps the approach was to firmly keep all fingers and toes crossed and just hope that they won't occur again. I have seen that happen quite a bit too, and not only in the railroad industry.

Yes, I agree that some of these things can happen with very - what appeared to be inconsequential - changes in operation or environmental conditions.

I also wonder whether the previous failures under similar circumstances were actually caused by the same thing that caused this one - maybe, maybe not. I don't know.

 

[DET63]

Or mayhaps the approach was to firmly keep all fingers and toes crossed and just hope that they won't occur again. I have seen that happen quite a bit too, and not only in the railroad industry.

Well, you know what they say about lightning never striking twice in the same place. (Although the opposite is actually true: lightning is statistically more likely to strike in a place it has struck before. Applying the analogy to this case, it shows how foolish hoping the same mishap won't occur again can be.)

 

[Long Train Runnin']

Well its running again.

The backlog of passengers waiting to travel on Eurostar from the weekend has been cleared today, the train operator has reported.
However, the train operator still advises customers whose journeys are not essential not to travel and to change their tickets for travel on a later date or have their tickets refunded.

A restricted service will continue to operate between 07:30 and 18:00 (GMT) on Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th December. More information about the indicative timetable is available on www.eurostar.com.

More here

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

One of the problem Eurostar has is they use another train sets to rescue broken down sets. No Diesel rescue engine wait in the wings. Railway Today Magazine favor fault of the Eurostar.

PRR and Amtrak had problems with the GG1 with light powered snow too.

Anyways.......

 

[DET63]

One of the problem Eurostar has is they use another train sets to rescue broken down sets. No Diesel rescue engine wait in the wings. Railway Today Magazine favor fault of the Eurostar.

PRR and Amtrak had problems with the GG1 with light powered snow too.

Anyways.......

Given the length of the Channel Tunnel, would it even be possible to bring diesel engines down there to pull or push a train out? Would accumulation and ventilation (or lack thereof) of diesel fumes be an issue?

 

[Neil_M]

One of the problem Eurostar has is they use another train sets to rescue broken down sets. No Diesel rescue engine wait in the wings. Railway Today Magazine favor fault of the Eurostar.

PRR and Amtrak had problems with the GG1 with light powered snow too.

Anyways.......

Given the length of the Channel Tunnel, would it even be possible to bring diesel engines down there to pull or push a train out?Would accumulation and ventilation (or lack thereof) of diesel fumes be an issue?

Yes and No.