The crowd of travelers had reason to be disappointed. “London-bound trains will not run today, we invite you to exchange your tickets for the next few days!” announce the Eurostar employees at the Gare du Nord from their megaphones. While the Channel Tunnel is closed due to a surprise strike by French employees of Eurotunnel, a subsidiary of the Getlink group, launched on Thursday at midday, everyone is wondering how to reach England before Christmas.
The large hall of Europe’s largest station is crowded, the information screens are clear: “Following an unexpected social action by the Eurotunnel manager, the circulation of Eurostar trains is interrupted.” “We’ve been waiting here for two hours. We have not received any help,” criticizes Rughani Tushar, an American tourist supposed to reach London from Paris. “We’ve looked at flights, but we can’t find any available until tomorrow.”
Many travelers, with their eyes glued to their phones, are also trying to find an alternative solution, even if it means completely recalculating their itineraries. Catherine Leray, for example, planned with her family to reach Calais, via Lille, by train, and then board a ferry to England. “It’s going to be chaotic, we don’t know what time we’re going to arrive,” she worries. Andrea, an American tourist preferring not to give her last name, even says she is “ready to rent a car” to reach the United Kingdom.
Sitting cross-legged on the station floor, her computer open in front of her and balanced on her suitcase, Claudia Roberts tries to find plane tickets to join her family for the holidays. “It’s an extra expense that I really could have done without with my student budget,” laments this 21-year-old British student on a university exchange in Nantes. “Plane tickets are over £200!” At least 230 euros.
Catherine, 80, was supposed to join her son in London for the end of year celebrations. “I made my passport on purpose,” she says, visibly disappointed and upset. She does not know if she will be able to join her loved ones. “It’s really typical of the French,” says Tim Kelsey, a fifty-year-old from Oxford.
French Eurotunnel employees stopped work to obtain three times more than the 1,000 euros end-of-year bonus offered to them by management. On the other side of the Channel, at St Pancras station in London, the cancellation of trains also caused panic among travelers wanting to reach the continent before Christmas.
According to an AFP journalist present on site, the reception and security agents at the station, who seemed equally caught off guard, even had to remove passengers who had already passed security checks and were waiting on the dock. “It’s a very unpleasant surprise. It’s nonsense here,” stamped Alain Fastré, a Belgian tourist.
Thomson Mouana, on vacation in the United Kingdom with his three children, was due to go to Paris to catch a plane back home to South Africa. Because of the strike, he admits “not knowing what to do”. “It’s worrying. (…) We are stuck. They told us we would get a refund, but how? (…) We do not have money !” “We do not yet have information on the state of services tomorrow (Friday). We invite you to consult our website to follow the latest information,” Eurostar simply indicates on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
At the start of the evening, the Eurotunnel unions announced the end of the surprise strike that began at midday and the immediate reopening of the Channel Tunnel, citing “result-bearing” discussions with their management.