NEW YORK, December 30, 2025, 08:25 ET
- Eurostar suspended all cross-Channel services to and from London after a power supply fault shut the Channel Tunnel.
- The disruption hit peak year-end travel, affecting both passenger trains and vehicle shuttles.
- Eurotunnel said technical work was under way and traffic was expected to restart gradually later Tuesday.
Eurostar halted all its cross-Channel train services to and from London on Tuesday after a fault in the Channel Tunnel’s overhead power supply — the wires that feed electricity to trains — forced the tunnel to close, the operator said.
The stoppage hit one of Europe’s busiest international rail corridors as holiday travel builds ahead of New Year’s Eve, leaving passengers scrambling for alternatives.
The Channel Tunnel is a choke point: a single disruption can cascade quickly because trains, crews and platforms are tightly scheduled on both sides of the border.
Eurostar said the disruption was triggered by the power supply problem and a failed LeShuttle train. Four trains between London and Paris had already been cancelled and three more were listed as delayed, according to AP.
Eurotunnel, the tunnel operator, said an incident related to power supply to trains occurred overnight and required technical intervention, with service suspended in both directions. It said traffic was expected to resume gradually around 3 p.m. local time, and Britain’s LNER said Eurostar passengers who abandoned journeys at London King’s Cross could return home on the next available LNER service at no extra cost.
Eurostar did not give a timeline for when its cross-Channel services would fully resume. The operator typically runs high-speed trains from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam and also sells tickets to leisure destinations such as Disneyland Paris and ski routes to the Alps, and it carried 19.5 million passengers in 2024.
On its service update page, Eurostar warned that trains still scheduled to run could face severe delays and last-minute cancellations, and it listed multiple services as cancelled on Dec. 30.
Travel writer Simon Calder at The Independent said Tuesday’s Eurostar services were running two to three hours late on average, with cancellations including London–Paris, London–Brussels and Amsterdam–London services. He said the Port of Dover reported ferry sailings to Calais and Dunkirk were running normally but warned pressure would likely rise as LeShuttle remained suspended.
The overhead power supply is the electrical system that powers trains in the tunnel. When it fails, operators typically stop traffic so engineers can isolate the fault and restore power safely.
