From missed funerals to scrambled birthday plans, the travellers caught in the cancellation Friday of Paris-London trains were left bewildered and, in some cases, in tears.
In Paris’s Gare du Nord and London’s St Pancras station the same announcement echoed all day: Eurostar trains between the cities were cancelled after a World War II bomb was unearthed near tracks in the French capital.
And while the bomb had been defused by Friday afternoon, traffic would only gradually resume from 1700 GMT, with a full service not expected until Saturday.
Hundreds of passengers joined a snaking queue at St Pancras station to change their tickets or slumped in the station concourse by their bags, searching for alternative travel routes on their phones.
Among them was Londoner Michelle Abeyie, who was having a bad start to her 40th birthday, which she had planned to celebrate with friends on her first-ever trip to Paris.
“We were supposed to get on the 11:30 (GMT train) to Paris, we would’ve gone to the Louvre and the Moulin Rouge (cabaret) tonight,” Abeyie told AFP.
“We had all the tickets booked,” she said, wiping away a few tears. “I’m really upset, disappointed, frustrated, stressed.”
However, her friends said they were determined to follow through with the day’s plans.
They looked for alternative trains to the southeast coastal town of Dover, from where they planned to catch a ferry to Calais in France.
– Planes ‘too expensive’ –
Friday is one of the busiest days of the week for the train route between the two capitals, a Eurostar employee at St Pancras told AFP.
Harrison Baker, a 28-year-old tourist from Australia was “shocked” when the loudspeakers at the central London station announced that the reason for cancellation was an unexploded shell.
Browsing for Airbnb rentals to stay an extra night in London, he admitted “it’s going to be expensive”, but was not disappointed.
“I’m happy because I get to stay here another day,” grinned Baker.
In another corner, actress and Londoner Marie was sobbing as she scrolled on her phone to look for alternative routes to Paris.
“I have a funeral to attend tomorrow,” said Marie, who did not wish to share her surname. “They’re doing everything they can, but it’s unfortunate.
“I can’t go at all (to Paris). The planes are too expensive,” Maria said, adding she would likely have to miss the funeral.
Across the channel in Gare du Nord, station staff tried their best to reassure bewildered passengers, many of them British tourists stranded in Paris.
Nadine, a 57-year-old British woman said she came to the station despite being warned that morning by her daughter. “I absolutely have to get home for work,” she said.
However, the experience was proving frustrating, as the Eurostar ticketing system had “crashed” for her. “I keep trying again and again… but nothing works. I don’t know what to do.”
– ‘Lucky it’s unexploded’ –
Many of the travellers, stuck in France for at least one more night, will have to find a hotel — like Steve Reilly, a 68-year-old Englishman from York who hoped to return “tomorrow, before noon!”
With the bomb finally defused on Friday afternoon, the trains were due to gradually resume from 1700 GMT, said French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot.
Rail traffic between the two capitals were expected to be running normally again by Saturday, Eurostar announced.
On Friday, the service was urging passengers to change their journey “for a different date” and offering exchanges and refunds on their train tickets.
Back in London, writer Henrietta Bredin had been set to take the 1230 GMT Eurostar to Paris and spend the next month there before her train was cancelled.
“It’s been difficult for everybody,” said Bredin.
Her co-traveller Mark Ormerod, 67, said the “information from the Eurostar has not been very good”, citing the little information available on the website.
When she heard the reason for the cancellation, Bredin said she “laughed”. “I couldn’t believe it… That doesn’t sound real, does it?”
“We’re very lucky that it’s unexploded,” Bredin joked.
“It’s a wonderful service,” added Ormerod. “We’d just like to get on it.”
Other Eurostar routes between London and Brussels or Amsterdam were running as normal.
