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Eurostar chaos [17 April 2014]

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Eurostar chaos [17 April 2014]

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Old Apr 17, 2014, 1:09 pm
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Eurostar chaos [17 April 2014]

I hope no-one else forum the forum is caught up in the total abortion at Paris Nord or St Pancras.

If anyone is booked on Eurostar, in the morning, look out, as it is going to be mega busy with people displaced this afternoon/evening's services.

I've just checked in to the Hilton, Orly, having spent over Ł625 on 2 x 1 way ET tickets to LHR in the morning.
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 1:12 pm
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Originally Posted by Final 3 Greens
I hope no-one else forum the forum is caught up in the total abortion at Paris Nord or St Pancras.
I'm sure you didn't mean to use that word.
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 1:31 pm
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Originally Posted by nth_utsera_sth_utsera
I'm sure you didn't mean to use that word.
Definition 2: An object or undertaking that is unpleasant or badly made or carried out.
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 1:35 pm
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Originally Posted by nth_utsera_sth_utsera
I'm sure you didn't mean to use that word.
Is there something intrinsically offensive about 'that word' in this context ? Or even any other context ?
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 2:47 pm
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Originally Posted by sinizter
Is there something intrinsically offensive about 'that word' in this context ? Or even any other context ?
It's not offensive, just seems like an unusual use of the word...
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 2:50 pm
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Originally Posted by sinizter
Is there something intrinsically offensive about 'that word' in this context ? Or even any other context ?
Quite.
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 3:15 pm
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I walked through St Pancs on my way home from work this evening... It was a complete scrum. Fingers crossed they get it sorted ASAP!
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 3:24 pm
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And some context for the problems

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27074444


Oh and if people thing engineering works only affect UK trains

Mr Calder said track closures in France meant the last train from London needed to depart by 21:30 BST if it was to reach its destination. This meant Eurostar was unable to run more trains on Thursday.
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 5:13 pm
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Originally Posted by Final 3 Greens
I've just checked in to the Hilton, Orly, having spent over Ł625 on 2 x 1 way ET tickets to LHR in the morning.
At least you get 20tp
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 8:08 pm
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Glad I missed this!
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 8:11 pm
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Extraordinary circumstances.
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Old Apr 18, 2014, 12:25 am
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Originally Posted by HIDDY
Extraordinary circumstances.
I don't agree HIDDY. It is a epistemic risk and one that has happened before. There should be a contingency plan in place to provide a better response.

It's not that I object to trains being cancelled under the circumstances, but there was NO ONE from Eurostar available in Paris Nord to inform us of what was happening and when we would be able to travel. The French Police were there in droves, telling people to queue up, but there were no tensa barriers or queue marshalling and the situation was getting quite heated, a guy behind me got a lot of verbal abuse from others who though he was queue jumping, even though he was clearly told by the police (in my earshot and I speak French) to join our queue.

My son has a flight to Malta today and under the circumstances I was pleased to get the BA flights to assure that connection.

The queue was in excess of 1km when we left. The Eurostar website later said the service would be back to normal, today and yet they have cancelled several trains already, according to the media.

BTW, in stating the cost of the tickets, let me be clear I have no beef with BA, the fare bucket was what was left and I was pleased to get them.
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Old Apr 18, 2014, 12:34 am
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Cast our mind back a couple of winters. Eurostar was in chaos because 'the wrong sort of snow' was causing havoc to the trains. After that they promised to 'learn lessons' on how to handle disruption. But on the evidence of last night, they've learned nothing.....
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Old Apr 18, 2014, 3:00 am
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For the curious, you can see the actual times of the trains entering/leaving the UK end of the channel tunnel yesterday at this page;

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/sear...=all&order=wtt

You can see that nothing arrived in the UK before 1030 BST - the one train shown otherwise (9113) is an error - a friend was on it and sat in the platform at Lille Europe until he gave up at 1130 CEST.

You can also see trains from the UK being held back and not sent through the tunnel until a line had opened past the fatality.

And then the Eurotunnel shuttle bought the wires down in the tunnel and it all really fell apart.

I was on 9125, 315 minutes late into St. Pancras - 1712 instead of 1157.
- 30 minutes held in the platform at Brussels
- 45 minutes held outside Lille Europe
- 2 hours in the platform at Lille Europe
- too long held right outside the entrance to the tunnel

JP
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