Passengers blocked underground in Eurotunnel for five hours must leave on foot

Eurotunnel passengers were stranded for nearly five hours after a train broke down under the English Channel. Hundreds of passengers had to use a service tunnel to get out.

It is a day that the passengers of this Eurotunnel shuttle will remember. On Tuesday 23 August, they remained stranded, under the English Channel, for almost five hours, reports The Guardian on Wednesday. The reason? An incident which affected their train leaving at 15:50 from Calais in France to reach Folkestone in the United Kingdom.

It all started with an alarm on board a shuttle, according to John Keefe, director of public affairs for Getlink, the company that operates the Channel Tunnel.

A passenger testifies: “We boarded the 15.50 train, about 10 minutes later the lights went out and the train stopped. We were told there was a problem with the wheels.” Nearly an hour and a half later, the passenger explained that he had to leave the train through the emergency tunnel, to reach a service tunnel. Passengers then had to walk for 10 minutes to another train which took them to Folkestone in the UK, six hours later.

In Calais, the incident caused long queues outside the shuttle terminal until late Tuesday evening. A spokesperson for Eurotunnel Le Shuttle confirmed on Twitter that a train had broken down in the tunnel and customers had been transferred to another shuttle, via the service tunnel, to reach Folkestone. “We sincerely apologise for this inconvenience,” he added. Service was back to normal Wednesday morning.