Thousands of train passengers in Britain and Europe have been stranded due to flooding in a tunnel under the River Thames.
Operators Southeastern and Eurostar canceled flights to and from London St Pancras on Friday after a major leak near Ebbsfleet International Station in Kent.
Southeastern said no high-speed services are expected to run between Ebbsfleet International and London St Pancras International on Saturday.
Eurostar canceled fourteen trains between London and European capitals, including Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels, on Saturday morning.
An estimated 16,000 passengers could be affected by the disruption as many travelers traveled ahead of Sunday’s New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Travel journalist Simon Calder said ‘desperate’ families trying to cross the Channel had started paying for flights, while others had returned home to use their cars in the hope of boarding a ferry.
Two newlyweds from New York said their plans to spend New Year’s Eve at Disneyland Paris have now been “ruined”.
Nicole Carrera, 29, and husband Christopher, 31, were due to catch a train to Paris on Saturday morning but had to rebook for a 2.30pm outbound train on Sunday.
This has thwarted their plans to spend New Year’s Eve at the theme park and left them in the lurch for a non-refundable hotel booked in Paris for Saturday evening.
Ms Carrera, who works for cosmetics company L’Oréal, told PA: “We got married in October and we planned this trip before we got engaged… we planned this trip because we always wanted to come to London and Paris. . We went to Paris because the cities are fun during the holidays and we had never been there before. It was on our list of travel destinations.
“We have been in London since Wednesday and wanted to leave today because we were going to Disneyland Paris tomorrow for New Year’s Eve.
‘So those plans have clearly been ruined, because now we won’t arrive in Paris until around 6 p.m. tomorrow. So we’re just going to walk around town tomorrow when we get there and finally get to our hotel. It’s just one of those things.”
She added: “We go to Disney in the States all the time in Florida so we were like, we might as well go while we’re there, what better way to celebrate New Year’s Eve, there there are so many things to do. ”
Christina David, 25, and Georgina Benyamin, 26, from Sydney, on holiday in Europe, fear their New Year’s plans in Paris will also be cancelled.
They have been on the road for about three weeks and their planned final destination is Paris, where they hoped to spend New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day before flying home on January 7.
They were due to catch the 7.30am train from London and panicked when they were told it had been cancelled.
Ms David said: “We paid for an expensive hotel with a view of the Eiffel Tower.” Ms Benyamin added: “We’ve been traveling around Europe on a budget and once we have New Year’s Eve we’re going fast, we’re seeing Paris light up, I don’t think that’s going to happen… I’m going to cry.”
She said she felt “frustrated, angry, sad.” Ms David added: “There were a lot of people crying… we don’t know where to go, we have nowhere to stay.” Ms Benyamin said their “New Year plans have been cancelled.”
“We have another train booked for tomorrow, we just hope it doesn’t get canceled too, otherwise we’re f…—-, we don’t know what to do. As long as we get to Paris, that’s what matters, to get our flight home,” Ms David said.
‘We do what we can’
Eurostar apologized to customers after canceling a further 15 services.
In a statement, the cross-channel rail operator said: “Eurostar has unfortunately had to cancel a further 15 trains to and from London as the situation does not improve with flooding in the tunnels between St Pancras International and Ebbsfleet. Network Rail continues to do everything it can and will notify Eurostar if services can continue later in the day.
“Eurostar deeply regrets the unforeseen issues affecting our customers and services.
“We understand this is an essential time to head home at the end of the festive season and ahead of the New Year. We are doing everything we can to rectify the situation.
“Customers are encouraged to visit the Eurostar website for more information about their journey and compensation entitlement.”
The flooding was first discovered in the tunnel on Friday evening, causing some services to be delayed. Officials reportedly decided at 4 a.m. to prevent trains from passing through.
In a statement, Southeastern said: “There will be a very limited service to and from St Pancras International for the remainder of the day due to flooding in a tunnel in the Ebbsfleet International area.
“Flooding has occurred in one of the two rail tunnels at Ebbsfleet, meaning only one tunnel is open. This has reduced the available capacity to run trains.
“The disruption will continue until the end of the service today.”
It comes as forecasters warned of possible travel disruptions across Britain over the last weekend of the year due to high winds and snow.
Windy conditions will sweep across Britain on Saturday, according to the Met Office, and meteorologist Alex Burkill said northern areas of Scotland were likely to see “significant snow”, possibly 10 to 20cm on the highest ground.
In a forecast video, Mr Burkill said “a touch of frost is likely” overnight into Saturday and that a deep area of low pressure awaits in the Atlantic Ocean and will make its way across Britain this weekend.
He said: “Towards the far east of Scotland, particularly Shetland, it will be a windy picture with frequent showers.”
Some frost is “possible” in the south, especially in the east, while “a more widespread hard frost” is expected in some parts of Scotland.
Temperatures could drop to “minus 8 or 9 degrees Celsius, maybe a little bit colder than that,” he added.
Some heavy rain is also likely to fall in the west of Northern Ireland on Saturday morning, before wet and windy conditions move to the east and north-east.
Mr Burkill added: “If that rain hits the cold air across Scotland, you can expect significant snow, especially on higher ground. We could see over 4 inches of snow on the ground and even at lower levels some slushy snow is possible. This can cause problems, especially on the roads.
“Elsewhere we have to be careful of the rain and strong winds.
“Heavy rain in parts of Wales and strong gales likely mainly around the southern and south-west coastal areas – so quite a unsettled day.”
‘It will feel quite unpleasant at times’
Mr Burkill said: “It will be relatively mild in the south with highs around 11°C or 12°C, but with the wind, rain and cloud it will feel quite unpleasant at times and colder further north, with temperatures here are suppressed to mid-single figures.
“Later on Saturday we will see the rain and snow across Scotland, or at least the worst of it, clearing towards the north-east and also that band of rain further south moving eastwards over parts of England could still be quite heavy are sometimes, so be careful of that.”
The new warnings come after a few windy days due to Storm Gerrit.
Hundreds of homes in Scotland were left without power as clean-up work began after the storm.
Thousands of properties in Ceredigion were also without power on Thursday after lightning struck supplies in Wales.
A period of strong and gusty winds will also affect London and the south-east, east and south-west of England on Saturday, along with parts of Wales, where a yellow warning for winds is in place until 3am on New Year’s Eve on Sunday. .
“Wide gusts of 45 to 80 km per hour may occur widely,” but the strongest winds are “likely to be near western and southern coasts, reaching 65 to 75 mph in some places,” the warning said.