Thousands of travellers had big problems during a busy travel time. A power failure happened in the Channel Tunnel. This stopped all Eurostar trains for most of the day. The problem was with the electrical cables. This stopped fast trains between big European cities. Freight services also had long delays.
The power went out early in the morning. Passengers were stuck at stations. Many people were at St Pancras International in London. Eurostar cancelled many of its trains. People were told not to travel. Some trains stopped for four hours with people inside. It was not clear how long the power would be off. This made people worried.
The situation at St Pancras got worse. Platforms were full of unhappy passengers. They looked for other ways to travel. Many people wanted to fly. Because of this, flight prices went up a lot. This cost people more money. Many people also lost money on hotels or events they could not go to.
Some people waited for a very long time. Dina Motashaw, a 21-year-old student, waited over ten hours. Drivers using LeShuttle waited up to six hours. This happened at Calais and Folkestone. The breakdown stopped them from crossing the tunnel. People helped each other. Some musicians played music at St Pancras. This made people feel a little better.
Later in the afternoon, trains started to run again. However, only one track in the tunnel was working. This was not enough to fix all the problems. The government said there was a big disruption. There were still many cancellations. More delays were expected for the rest of the day. This shows how important infrastructure is for travel. It affects many people.