A Eurostar passenger train leaves the Channel Tunnel, in Coquelles (northern France) – July 2019 (AFP / DENIS CHARLET)
After a surprise strike which paralyzed the Channel Tunnel on Thursday afternoon, train traffic returned to normal on Friday, with additional trains for travelers left behind.
The circulation of Eurostar trains departing from London, Paris and Brussels “has today (Friday) returned to normal”, indicated the company, a subsidiary of SNCF, Friday midday in a message to AFP.
Eight trains were added between Friday and Sunday and more than 10,000 additional seats are available for the next three days, according to the company.
On Thursday afternoon, the Channel Tunnel was closed due to a surprise strike by French staff at Eurotunnel, the company that operates it. It was able to reopen on Thursday evening, the unions claiming “result-producing” discussions with their management.
The management of Getlink, parent company of Eurotunnel, indicated in the afternoon that the union organizations were demanding a tripling of the bonus of 1,000 euros which had been promised to them.
Meanwhile, all trains between Paris and Brussels on one side and London on the other had been canceled at the beginning of the afternoon, causing panic among thousands of departing travelers.
Some relied on buses, according to the operator BlaBlaCar, three of which took ferries on Thursday rather than going through the tunnel. “All our buses were immediately full an hour after the announcement” of the strike, the operator told AFP.
Marcus Haywood-Alexander, 29, was due to return to Sheffield (England) on Thursday to spend the holidays with family. He was on his way to the Gare du Nord on Thursday when his train was canceled, and switched to a bus at the Paris-Bercy bus station on Friday morning.
“There was no other train before Saturday, so I looked straight away to see if there were buses and managed to find a ticket for today for 72 pounds” (83 euros), said told AFP the mechanical researcher, who lives in Zurich.
The cancellation of his train, however, forced him to spend a night in a hotel, for 150 euros, and hopes to obtain a refund.
Travelers had even less luck at the airports: Air France indicated that at this time of year all flights to London were already full or almost full.