Power glitch leaves passengers stuck on Eurostar

A power supply problem left passengers stuck on Eurostar trains between Britain and France for several hours on Monday and early Tuesday, the high-speed rail company said.

The glitch in the overhead electricity lines on the French side of the tunnel under the English Channel caused big delays on trains running in both directions.

Eurostar, the company that operates the service, canceled several trains Monday and experienced “severe delays totaling many hours on others,” said a company spokeswoman. Some trains were still between stations at 1:45 a.m. Tuesday in Britain, she added.

The train operator has also canceled four trains scheduled for Tuesday and expects more delays, the spokeswoman said, since the power supply problem means the trains can’t use the high-speed lines they usually travel on.

CNN’s Juliet Mann was trying to get from Paris to London by Eurostar on Monday afternoon.

“It was very obvious as we trundled through the French countryside that we had been diverted from our usual route,” she said, saying the train driver made regular stops to check for status updates via fax.

“We pulled into (London’s) St. Pancras (station) four hours later than planned after the scenic tour of northern France,” she said.

Eurostar gave passengers regular updates and glasses of water, and offered them a complimentary round-trip journey, Mann said.

The travel disruption took place at an inconvenient time for the fashion world, coming near the end of a week of Pret A Porter shows in Paris.

The Eurostar runs a route between London and Paris, stopping in some cases at smaller towns in between.

CNN’s Brian Walker and Jethro Mullen contributed to this report.