Eurostar train fails again, leaving 700 stranded02: 22 22/02/2010, Jo Adetunji, Channel Tunnel, guardian.co.uk, news, rail transport, rail transport,

Eurostar train fails again, leaving 700 stranded02: 22 22/02/2010, Jo Adetunji, Channel Tunnel, guardian.co.uk, news, rail transport, rail transport, transportation, travel, news, UK news the world, Guardian Unlimited

Passengers have to transfer to a rescue train for fire service charge is split in the road to London

Eurostar suffered another setback last night after hundreds of passengers were stranded when a train broke down en route to London.

British Transport Police said a rescue train was sent to pick up about 700 passengers after the train stopped running near Ashford, in Kent, around 10pm.

A passenger who was returning from France, told Sky News from the train suddenly stopped and the lights on the train left.

"It's getting quite hot, but people are very calm, very relaxed," he said.

He said the rescue train came shortly before midnight to take passengers from London.

Eurostar said the train stopped after a "significant technical problems" which had not yet been identified. A spokesman said: "We are moving as quickly as possible.

"We have put everything in position for people who need to get taxis or those who need hotels are served. Our priority is to ensure that our passengers are served."

He added: "We are fully investigating what happened. Do not know exactly what happened and why at this time. The priority now is to ensure that passengers are well cared for. As far as we are concerned we have everything in place." He said that all other services are running normally.

The incident is another to fall on a troubled Eurostar was heavily criticized after a series of train breakdowns during heavy snowfall in December.

The service, which was paralyzed for several days, left more than 2,000 people stranded in the tunnel - that night - after four trains broke down due to cold weather, days before Christmas.

The breakdowns led to cancellations and major disruption and the company was forced to offer refunds or exchanges for all passengers should travel.

A train broke down in January over leaving passengers stranded in the tunnel for over an hour.

An independent investigation of chaos in the pre-Christmas travel criticized the signing of this month for not adequately protecting the engines of the train from the winter weather. He said passengers had suffered "terrible" conditions and said Eurostar was forced to improvise after the failure of the emergency plan of this type.

The trains are believed to have failed as he left the cold air in northern France and into the warmer air inside the tunnel, affecting the engine air intakes.

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