This situation has to be close to one of my most worst nightmares; trapped inside a train, inside a tunnel, all night, UNDER the freezing English channel. See guardian.co.uk for the full story.
Yesterday nearly 2000 travellers were stranded for up to 15 hours after four Eurostar trains broke down between France and England. Many suffered panic attacks or fainted as they waited for help.
Eurostar management said the problem was caused by the contrast between extremely cold temperatures on the railways and a comparatively warm tunnel. 
A Eurostar train. Photograph: Denis Charlet/AFP/Getty Images
This situation just couldn’t arise here in New Zealand. For a start there’s nowhere to get to via tunnel; Australia is more than 2,200 kilometres away and secondly; even if there was another country close, all our trains are so old and crappy that no-one in their right mind would actually try and travel that far.
I think all I have is OH.MY.GAWD!!!!!
ReplyDeleteLoved being part of your 2009 and look forward to 2010!!
Haha. I think the real reason for the breakdowns is that Britain has a reputation for poor rail service that it’s anxious to maintain.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were, let's see, 25, we bicycled around England. We found out there are trains A LOT faster than there are in the states when we looked both ways, crossed some tracks and a train showed up out of nowhere. We got over with inches to spare and big, wide eyes!
ReplyDeleteIt's better than our almost non-existant service Simon. I'll never forget learning how to use the tube my first time in England - I couldn't believe how easy it was to get around.
ReplyDeleteThe subways in NYC aren't bad, all things considered.
ReplyDeleteWow! That would be a little cramped for me, too. Ugh! Maybe they should build a floating tunnel (see through) between Australia and New Zealand? That would be cool, but an engineering nightmare or sorts.
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays.
Whenever anyone mentions the Chunnel I can barely breathe.
ReplyDeleteThere is talk here in B.C. about building a tunnel across the ocean floor to Vancouver Island. Much as I hate the ferry crossing I don't know that I could survive the drive through there. I am honestly struggling to control my breathing just writing about it here.
Oh, I'm shivering just thinking about this! I'll bet those travelers won't be riding that train again...maybe EVER.
ReplyDeleteI only read the headlines and didn't realize it was for 15 HOURS. Holy crap!
ReplyDeleteI watched a special about the building of the tunnel a few years ago, and it emphasized all of the many safe guards put into place. Now I wonder.
I have never liked the underwater tunnel idea ANYWHERE. I was antsy crossing Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and it's two one mile tunnels. A piece of cake compared to that thing under the English Channel. Nope, give me a ferry.
Awful eh? I hear the probs are ongoing too though today it's less about people trapped and more about people stranded - trying to get home for Christmas I guess. Speaking of that just saw on late news here that east coast of US got some extra bad weather on the way - good luck Kathryn and PENolan. And Kyle and Stan in New Hampshire too I guess.
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