Specialist engineers are to examine Eurostar's usually trouble-free trains to crack the puzzle of why they failed so disastrously, after running unaffected in previous cold snaps.The firm has blamed the sudden contrast for the high speed engines between freezing temperatures above ground and the heat of the tunnel's 25C (77F).Slower freight trains on the Eurotunnel service were not affected, and the contrast will form part of the company's investigation. Experts are also expected to focus on the fact that the failures were in London-bound services, which spend longer overground in France before the tunnel than trains going south."It's all a bit of a mystery and the company, and indeed a lot of people, appear baffled by it," said Nigel Harris, managing editor of Rail magazine. "But the fact that the problem has affected London-bound trains rather than ones leaving St Pancras may have been due to the fact that those heading away from London have less time to get cold.
Specialist engineers are to examine Eurostar's usually trouble-free trains to crack the puzzle of why they failed so disastrously, after running unaffected in previous cold snaps.
The firm has blamed the sudden contrast for the high speed engines between freezing temperatures above ground and the heat of the tunnel's 25C (77F).
Slower freight trains on the Eurotunnel service were not affected, and the contrast will form part of the company's investigation. Experts are also expected to focus on the fact that the failures were in London-bound services, which spend longer overground in France before the tunnel than trains going south.
"It's all a bit of a mystery and the company, and indeed a lot of people, appear baffled by it," said Nigel Harris, managing editor of Rail magazine. "But the fact that the problem has affected London-bound trains rather than ones leaving St Pancras may have been due to the fact that those heading away from London have less time to get cold.
