PARIS: At least 17 Eurostar trains connecting Paris with London and continental Europe were canceled on Monday after an electrical fault on the high speed line in northern France, the train company said.
“Due to part of the track being temporarily closed on the French network, severe disruptions including cancelations are expected all day to and from Paris,” Eurostar said.
“We strongly advise all our passengers to postpone their journey to a different date,” it added.
As well as the cancelations, passengers whose trains were running were experiencing major delays of up to two hours.
French track network operator SNCF Reseau said teams were in place to diagnose the problem and carry out repairs.
It remains unclear what caused the incident on the train line between Moussy and Longueil in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France.
At least 17 Eurostar trains connecting London with Paris through the Channel Tunnel as well as Brussels and Amsterdam were canceled, it said.
A Paris-Brussels train and another Brussels-Paris train which left Monday morning had to turn back to their stations of origin, it added.
Those trains that were running were being directed by the SNCF along classic non-high speed lines.
Trains were starting to move again along the high-speed line from 1600 GMT but only on one track for both directions.
Disruption would persist until Monday evening and work would continue throughout the night to restore traffic to normal by the morning, SNCF said.
The incident is the latest to affect Eurostar services during the holiday season at a time when the company has faced criticism over its high prices, especially on the Paris-London route.
The theft of cables along train tracks in northern France had caused two days of problems at the end of June.
French operator SNCF has a majority shareholding in Eurostar, with Belgian railways, Quebec investment fund CDPQ and US fund manager Federated Hermes holding minority stakes.