Passengers stranded in Chunnel

Good reminder to be prepared, even if its only a short commute. Sure, everyone's warm and safe, but being stuck for hours in a confined space isn't fun. A good example of how the usual EDC items like snacks, water, and wet wipes can make a really uncomfortable situation tolerable.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/12/19/channel.tunnel/index.html

Stuff always happens when you least expect it.
Considering the weather it seems odd that they did not expect this.
I am still not quite clear on why the trains failed. Were they having trouble with the tracks icing?

Its not really clear in the news reposts. They say its because of the temperature difference inside and outside the tunnel.

Consider is including ear plugs, aspirin, menthol cough drops, and something that will work as a sleep mask. There are situations where your going to be stuck in close proximity to other people.

Small in-ear plugs still allow you to hear conversations and warnings because they only dull the noise.

Menthol cough drops mask the inevitable smells associated with numbers of people tightly confined and help slake thirst, and cure an itchy throat. They may also help smokers who are confined where they can't smoke and help calm cranky children.

Aspirin are good for tension headaches and might save a life if someone has a heart attack.

Pop in the ear plugs, add a cough drop, and put on your sleep mask and you can go into your own little world while still maintaining enough awareness to be safe. If the situation is very much under control you might catch a nap.

This should also emphasize that it is best to travel in clothing that is comfortable, durable, and protective. Sturdy shoes, I prefer boots, that you can hike in and leather gloves are helpful.

"I am still not quite clear on why the trains failed. Were they having trouble with the tracks icing?"

It sounds like condensation on the electrical equipment shorted them out. They're electric trains, not diesel.

Sue

Four of the trains failed *in the tunnel* where it was "warm", not outside where it was cold.

The likely cause is a mechanical design flaw resulting in uneven thermal expansion of parts in the engines made of different materials.

There's not enough information to tell but I bet when they entered the "warm" tunnel part A expanded quickly and part B more slowly, and they got out of alignment...

Whoever designed those engines is not going to have a Merry Christmas. I predict long hours starting tomorrow morning to determine how to operate the existing trains safely as well as come up with a fix that be retrofitted quickly. We're early enough in the winter season that these weather conditions could repeat in just a few weeks.

PS. Susan's explanation is more likely. The air in the "warm" tunnel will carry a lot of moisture. It's still going to be a busy week for someone to get it fixed...

On the same subject, kind of. I read in the news that railway tracks broke near my hometown because of cold. It was about -20 celsius at the time. I think it´s first time I hear that cold can cause such a problem.

They had laid new tracks there this summer to allow trains to go faster.

The news here made it seem like a lot of whinny people, the interview of the people were crying about very insignificant issues and it gave the impression that they were helpless to do anything when if you look at there situation, they were in very good shape with no impairent danger. It amazes me how people are getting so scared and lazy for not so difficult situations, you wonder how people survive day to day. This is like this in many countries, sometimes I think people should live in a true 3rd world country extreme living for a few years and they would appreciate whats around them.

Apparently even one of the Frenchy train drivers was found greeting, whilst locked in his drivers compartment.

Rule to Self. Never get on train which is staffed by the French whilst having to make a long tunnel trip.

This has been added to the - Never get on a Cruise liner with a Greek Crew, which may possibly catch fire.

The real fun is it won't be running for at least a week - lot of stuck passengers

How far away were they from any available emergency exit?

It might be longer than that, these train breakdowns might not be related to any mechanical issues or electrical breakdowns due to condensation as speculated, it could well be down to a few lines of software code, such as software Integrator control limits being saturated for a temperature sensor somewhere, which causes an exception and shuts down the motor/switching power supply controller computer. It might be very very difficult to find out what might be causing these failures.

From the Mirror in the UK: "The company said last night that wintry conditions in northern France caused snow to build up underneath the trains. When the trains entered the hot tunnel the melted snow and condensation worked its way into the electrics and caused a fault. Modifications to fix the glitch are underway."

Several of the news articles indicate there was no water, food or lighting. And with the Chunnel being about 32 miles long, it could be a long walk, although I couldn't find anything that indicated how far into the tunnel the trains broke down.

As with most travel, I guess you need to take your own supplies no matter where or when you go, even if it is just a 3-hour trip.

In a tunnel. Under the ocean. It gives me the cold chills at the thought.

And thinking back on the thread about excessive numbers of flashlights... all of them would have been welcomed there!

Sue

Just read that some passengers were stuck for over 15 hours with no food or water. Thats enough time to fray some nerves.

I say travel well prepaired,, I don't trust the train, or plain companies to tend to my needs I expect me to be there for me and those with me. YES I over pack!!

I think that most of the population at large are aways expecting someone to tend to them and take care of there needs. Those of us here on this site think difrently, we see this news report and think, "how can I prevent that happening to me," or, "what would I have done in that situation," the average person who sees that thinks, "what a tragidy!"

I look at that as a reson to carry playing cards in my Man bag now so that I could at least play some card games with those around me and get to know people. Heck, you could make friends for life during that ordeal.

The problem seemed to be shortcircuits due to condensastion. The problems should be over now, and from tuesday the trains will run at 2/3 of their capacity

On NPR they had an account that implied that highly unusual weather in the area allowed very light and fluffy snow to blow into the electronics where it shorted things out when it melted. Such areas are usually ventilated to allow cooling but are typically protected by being under a deep overhang and protected by louvers that would stop rain and snow. At least your typical snow. Evidently the snow was so light, dry and fluffy that it blew in past the louvers.

I suspect that installing screens behind the louvers, to slow air movement so the air drops any precipitation, and adding a conformal coating to the electronics, to protect them from any moisture, might solve this problem. These things are pretty common strategies in a marine environment.

Adding such product improvements is pretty commonly necessary as complex machinery is exposed to different conditions. many of our most reliable devices have had rough development paths before all the kinks were worked out.

Plan B: http://www.steamlocomotive.com/cabforward/

Have to build a fanhouse, too, to ventilate...

Reminds me of the story of the Box cab electrics (I believe they were 1d-d1 class) back in the 1930s here in the US on the Northeast corridor. The blowing snow caused almost all of them to short out - mods were needed (somehow, I remember that the GG-1 was involved also)

I'm just hoping they had some bathroom facilities on the train. 14 hours is a long time to wait. It could get messy.

+1 on always travelling prepared. A small bag or pack with water, food and other items could have been really useful. Of course then you run into another recently discussed dilemma. Do you share with your fellow passengers?

As ever its not knowing thats the problem. Tell me i've got to wait 12 hours, I can cope. Just leve me wondering and by hour 11, I'll be ready to murder someone...

I wonder how much you can carry? My guess is that the Chunnel is secured to more-or-less a commercial aircraft standard. If that's the case, even water would need to be purchased/filled on the secure side. No multitools either (agh!).

Anybody have direct info about this?

[P.S., I'm just tacking onto the tail end of the thread. Mods, can we create a universal codeword/acronym for this?]

prohibited items

http://www.eurostar.com/UK/be/leisure/travel_information/before_you_go/prohibited_items.jsp

This is a strong argument for a keychain-sized multitool (I'm partial to the Leatherman Squirt P4). It's not as good as a full-size multi, but it's way better than nothing.

Doug, thought about that when I posted. Browsed through the link provided by Xterior and found this wonderfully vague statement under prohibited items:

"Any other item made, adapted or intended for use as an offensive weapon."

Open to very broad interpretation, no doubt intentional. Maybe that keychain multitool would end up getting confiscated. So would my ever-present SAK I'm sure. Wonder what the policy is on liquids in containers and such? Nothing on the list but I would guess it is frowned upon, especially if you can buy water, food, etc while on the train.

Was also glad to see, for the stranded passengers sake, that there were indeed bathroom facilities on board.

I bought a swiss-tech 8in1 micro tool for traveling when my squirt P4 would not be allowed. Problem is, its very heavy for just some micro pliers, philips and flat head screw driver, so I don't really carry it. Hard to see how a squirt P4 could be used as a weapon, but thats for another discussion.

"Hard to see how a squirt P4 could be used as a weapon..."

Make a sling of your handkerchief and whack someone in the nose with it?

Sue

They managed to eventually tow the trains out with diesel engines. I imagine they could do that still to continue service.

Diesel engines...

I would imagine that all the diesel exhaust confined to the tunnel was the reason that they use electric engines.

Of course, all the carbon monoxide from the engine fumes might make the passengers quieter than the last batch...

Sue

And speed, the trains do 186mph it's difficult to make a diesel that powerfull.

After the melting snow that caused the fault the screw up was the usual management SNAFU.
The tunnel, the track on the English side, track on the French side, the trains, and the signalling are all owned and operated by separate companies.

So the first train got stuck nobody told the French operator to stop sending the other 5 trains in - the signalling system can handle 50 trains in the tunnel at once.

Then the first train operator leased a diesel from another company to tow the first train, but instead of just pulling it out of the tunnel into the station they towed it to London (it's final destination) - unfortunately that took 4hours before it could get back for the next train ....

Back when the railways were an inefficent nationalized dinosaur it would have been easy - but now that everybody working there is in competition with everyone else it's chaos as soon as anything out of the ordinary happens.