Home Folkestone News Article
Eurotunnel passengers face waits of up to six hours and Eurostar travellers face separate misery in Easter gridlock
15:00, 17 April 2014
updated: 15:25, 17 April 2014
All of tonight's Eurostar services have been cancelled and passengers warned not to come to the Ashford terminal.
It follows a day of severe delays after a person was hit in the tunnel at Lille.
Meanwhile Eurotunnel passengers in Kent have been facing waits of up to six hours after a technical hitch in the Channel Tunnel.
Eurostar said tonight that all passengers affected by the delays would be compensated. It said people booked to travel tomorrow should proceed as planned.
But dozens of passengers have taken to social media to vent their fury.
Many said they had queued for up to seven hours before finally being told they could not travel.
And there was further anger and confusion as it emerged services were already fully booked for tomorrow, ruining hundreds of people's Easter breaks.
Travellers using Eurotunnel have been told to expect a one-hour wait to check in, followed by another five-hour wait at the terminal.
The disruption - during one of the busiest weekends of the year - is being put down to technical problems.
For freight traffic, the delays are said to be anything up to three hours and 30 minutes at Folkestone.
The exit slip road at the M20 at J11A for the tunnel has been closed.
A reduced service is running due to "an incident in the tunnel". Drivers are advised to use an alternative route.
The chaos comes as more than 130,000 passengers are expected to travel on Eurostar over the weekend.
Kent Police said there would be a series of rolling road blocks on the M20 coast-bound between J8 and J12 in a bid to reduce the volume of traffic.
Police say they are trying to prevent introducing Operation Stack.