Independent review ongoing
Richard Brown, Eurostar's ceo, has offered a "heartfelt apology" to disrupted passengers, as an independent review gets underway.
The cross-channel rail service was brought to a stand-still on December 19, with some passengers stuck in the channel tunnel for several hours without food or water.
Trains started running again on December 21, but passengers continued to experience delays until December 24.
Eurostar has blamed the cancellations and delays on severe weather conditions in northern France.
Mr Brown called it an "unprecedented situation" that five trains should break down in the tunnel at the same time.
He said: "It is true that we have experienced cold weather in previous years and had winterised our fleet to prevent such situations from occurring, but the combination of particularly heavy snow and the warm conditions in the tunnel meant that these measures were not sufficient to prevent the sets failing in this way."
Eurostar had to improve the the snow screens and snow shields in the power cars of the trains before services could resume.
Mr Brown also acknowledged a breakdown in emergency recovery procedures, which is likely to be a focal point of the independent review.
Eurotunnel, operator of the channel tunnel, has accused Eurostar staff and British police of contributing to the delay in evacuating passengers from trains, Reuters reported.
In a statement sent to its shareholders on December 25, Eurotunnel said the evacuation was prolonged because Eurostar staff told passengers to take their luggage with them.
Eurotunnel also said that Kent police had engaged in "interminable checks" on passengers, which had added to delays.
The disruptions "were in no way due to the Tunnel infrastructure", said Eurotunnel.
Eurotunnel used its own trains to evacuate some 1,300 Eurostar passengers on December 19, and bring them to the surface in Folkestone, Kent.
Christopher Garnett, former ceo of GNER and former commercial director of Eurotunnel, and Claude Gressier, inspecteur général des Ponts et Chaussées, are heading the independent review of the Eurostar disruption.
The investigation will focus on the causes of the disruption, contingency planning, the arrangements with Eurotunnel as well as the passenger care during the disruption and suspension of service.
The review, due to be published by the end of January 2010, will be a joint Anglo-French initiative, independent of Eurostar, and will be accountable to Eurostar's shareholders and boards.
www.eurostar.com www.eurotunnel.com