Fire in Eurotunnel

It is difficult to work out whether this fire is as bad as the first one in 1996. If it is, there will need to be extensive rebuilding of the damaged section, which will reduce the number of slots for traffic for several months.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7610919.stm
The train was coming from Britain, and so was nearly there when the fire was detected. The fire is 11km from France.

People travelling on Eurostar seem to have been given little or no assistance in continuing their journey. At the least they should have been taken by bus and ferry. People with tickets for the tunnel have been given vouchers to use on the ferries.

The fire went on for 17 hours.

My guess is that there will have been serious damage in the section where the fire was. Last time the concrete lining was damaged and had to be replaced, a job that will take months. However, I should hope they will be able to run a limited service with the five undamaged sections.

There are two crossovers in the tunnel which means each section can be used bi-directionally. So the French end can be used as single bi-directional track while the other sections run as at present.

As the tunnel is not running at full capacity it is quite possible that nearly a full service will be run. We are now out of the peak period, with the schools back, the car traffic is declining.

There are questions about what was on the lorry that caught fire. Perhaps that sort of cargo should be added to the list of things not to be carried.

I do wonder why Eurostar can't take people in high speed trains to Ashford, transfer to buses for a ferry trip and resume at Calais for the TGV Nord to Lille. Perhaps it would take too many buses? This arrangement would take advantage of the high speed rail links, even if the crossing is lengthened from 30 minutes to two hours.

The answer may be the Home Office regulations on immigration. Once people have passed through immigration they are basically locked in the train until they get to France. Letting them out at Ashford would bring them into British space again. And the immigration in the reverse direction would have to be done in Calais instead of St Pancras, with the need for a large number of immigration officers sent to Calais.

hmmm , no good . perhaps they need to look at automatic fire extingushing systems in the fregiht shuttles .
But then again , why would a load catch fire ???

David Benton wrote:hmmm , no good . perhaps they need to look at automatic fire extingushing systems in the fregiht shuttles .
But then again , why would a load catch fire ???

Speculation is brakes. But they never really solved the last big fire. It was suspected but never proved that a striker threw a burning torch on to the train before it entered the tunnel. This time the train had nearly got through the tunnel - only 7 miles to go before getting out.

I suppose terrorism is always a possibility.

Carrying a sprinkler system would be difficult. It would either add to the weight of the train or reduce capacity or both. A sprinkler system in the whole tunnel would be very expensive. Perhaps the insurers might insist on it, after there have been two claims.

Trains roll again through fire-hit Channel Tunnel
18 hours ago

CALAIS, France (AFP) — Freight services resumed through the Channel Tunnel and Eurostar passenger services were due to make a gradual comeback early Saturday after a blaze shut down the busy link between Britain and mainland Europe leaving thousands stranded.

The passenger traffic, much reduced over the weekend, will use only the south tunnel which was unaffected by the 1,000 degree Celsius inferno that raged inside the parallel north tunnel.

The world's longest uninterrupted undersea link reopened to freight services late Friday, a spokesman for operators Eurotunnel told AFP. Eurostar said in Paris that passenger trains heading in the two directions would alternate in the south tunnel.

"Our inspections are now completed," said Eurotunnel chief executive officer Jacques Gounon on French television.

"Installations in the south tunnel, which was not touched by fire, are in excellent condition," he said, as the exact cause of the inferno remained under investigation.

Earlier, a Eurotunnel spokeswoman said passenger services would "very probably" resume Saturday. Besides high-speed Eurostar trains from London to Paris and Brussels, the tunnel also shuttles passenger cars.

The French national rail operator SNCF cautioned, however, that passenger service "will be greatly reduced all weekend, with travel times extended."

The fire -- the third to strike the 50-kilometre (30-mile) tunnel since it opened in May 1994 -- claimed no fatalities, but it left tens of thousands of travellers stranded or forced to change their travel plans.

Extra flights, buses and cross-Channel ferries were laid on. On Friday alone, some 30,000 travellers had been booked to ride a total of 50 Eurostar trains -- all of which were cancelled.

To add to Britain's travel turmoil Friday, the country's third largest tour operator went bust.

Airports saw chaotic scenes after the XL Leisure Group called in the administrators, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded, while travellers booked for the tunnel scrambled to find alternative routes.

At Gatwick airport south of London the two travel crunches combined, with thousands of people seeking to fly to France due to the tunnel closure, at the same time as XL customers were left grounded by the operator's woes.

British and French firefighters on Friday put out the inferno deep inside the north tunnel, after battling all Thursday night in relay teams and the temperature soared to 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,830 degrees Fahrenheit).

Nearly all 27 lorries riding the 700-metre-long France-bound train on which the fire broke out Thursday were burned, and Eurotunnel said it would take weeks to rebuild the stricken section of tunnel.

"We need to redo the electricity, the concrete, everything you do when a house burns down," a Eurotunnel spokeswoman said.

The fire-stricken train was about 12 kilometres (seven miles) from the Calais exit on the French side of the 50.5-kilometre (31.4 mile) tunnel when it caught fire, officials said.

Thirty-two truck drivers on the shuttle smashed windows to escape and get into the service tunnel from where they were evacuated. Six people were injured in the third major blaze since the tunnel under the Channel opened in May 1994.

Officials said they suspected the fire started in a truck's braking system that overheated and spread to a tyre, but Eurotunnel's Gounon said it was too soon to say with any certainty what the cause was.

One of the 30 trucks on the shuttle was carrying phenol acid, but this reportedly did not catch fire.

Gounon said safety precautions had worked "perfectly," and he dismissed the matter of truck drivers smashing windows as a "normal" reaction by men who "perhaps wanted to get out faster than necessary from the pressurised cabin."

He told French radio the automatic doors on the shuttle only function when it is certain that safety fans are working so there is no risk of anyone being overcome by fumes.

In the first serious incident in the tunnel on November 18, 1996, a fire broke out on a late-night shuttle train carrying trucks. Eight people were injured and the service was disrupted for several months.

On August 21, 2006, the tunnel was closed for several hours after a truck engine caught fire, sending smoke through the tunnel.

Another press release. As I predicted they are using a one way system in the north tunnel, but two way from the British crossover to Folkestone, while they rebuild the sector that suffered the fire. Later they will move up to the French crossover.
http://www.eurotunnel.com/ukcP3Main/ukc ... Tunnel.htm
However, I think they need more rigorous inspection of lorries going in to check for hot spots that might produce a fire.

This week's Rail magazine says the fire was worse than the last one.
However, it also says that at press time the site of the fire still had not been examined closely. I think we can assume a reduced service will continue for many months, pending reconstruction. Part of the train was shown on tv being removed a few days ago.

There are fewer Eurostars than previously timetabled and a reduced service of car shuttles. However, this is not the busiest time of year. Lorry shuttles seem to be more or less normal - they are the most profitable part of the service.