Eurostar: Major delays after breakdown at UK customs and confusion at Gare du Nord

An accident at British customs led to numerous delays for Eurostar trains between Paris and London this Thursday evening, Le Parisien reports.

These delays are not “on Eurostar’s side” but are caused by a “major IT issue” with the UK’s “border control agency”, the company points out, which says it hopes to return to normal “as quickly as possible”. without an accurate estimate of time. The problem particularly affects “electronic gates,” that is, electronic passport verification gates.

Several rail users between the French and UK capitals expressed impatience with the X this Thursday. “Can Eurostar explain why I received a message warning me that there was a significant delay on the train leaving Paris at 21:11? “, got angry Mon of them.

Up to 60 minutes late

“As a big supporter of trains, it pains me to say this, but at the moment Eurostar is a good advertisement for planes.” ironizes another passenger late at night, in the caption of a photo showing a long queue at the Eurostar gate.

“Unfortunately, the electronic passport gates are currently closed,” a Eurostar employee confirmed. on early in the evening, specifying that a train departing after 21:00 would be 60 minutes late.

The failure, which affected British customs, also affected border police services in the British territory, according to the Daily Mirror, which noted disruptions at Edinburgh airport and Gatwick airport, near London. The latter also confirmed the current failure to the British newspaper, apologizing and assuring that the problem was “national in nature.”

This incident at the British border occurred on Thursday when thousands of flights had to be canceled due to a strike by some French air traffic controllers, despite the cancellation of the notice by the majority union. Some 2,600 flights were scheduled to depart from or arrive at the French airport that day, up from nearly 5,200 the day before, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) dashboard seen in the afternoon.