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Channel Tunnel set to reopen after fire as passengers tell of escape
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by Paul Conneally | September 12, 2008 at 03:02 pm
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Reports are now coming through that the channel tunnel is now open to freight traffic. This is different from earlier reports that the tunnel might be closed to freight for up to 6 months.
The Channel Tunnel was reopening to freight last night, less than 36 hours after a fire raged inside the rail link between Britain and France, Eurotunnel said.
The tunnel operator said that it had run two test trains through the south tunnel from Calais to Folkestone and was running two more in the other direction. Passenger services should resume at about 6am today, it added.
The blaze was finally extinguished yesterday morning after hundreds of firefighters fought throughout the night to bring it under control.
The tunnel’s closure caused transport chaos on both sides of the Channel, with dozens of passengers stranded and lorries backed up for hours at Dover and Calais.
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Paul Conneally
Loughborough, Leicestershire, United Kingdom
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 15:12 on September 12th, 2008
LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff.
Yay!!
at 13:49 on September 13th, 2008
From the Kent & Sussex Courier 12 September:-
OPERATION Stack has been put in place following a fire in the Channel Tunnel, causing misery for hundreds of motorists.
The scheme, which involves parking lorries going to the Port of Dover and the Channel Tunnel along the M20, is now in operation between junctions eight and nine of the motorway.
Non-freight traffic is being diverted onto the A20 at junction eight. The Channel Tunnel slip road at junction 11a is closed.
A ticket system is in operation at the Port of Dover. All drivers queued on the motorway will receive a ticket and any who do not have one on arrival in Dover will be turned back up the motorway. There were 32 lorry drivers on board the Channel Tunnel train affected by the fire.