Eurostar chaos after IT system fault causes widespread delays
Travellers on the Eurostar are facing severe delays and cancellations to services between London and Paris due to an IT fault at UK Border Force.
An email sent to one passenger on Thursday warned of “severe delays and last-minute cancellations” to services to Paris Gare du Nord “due to an IT problem” with UK Border Force in the station.
The message warned their 8pm train from London St Pancras’ was likely to be affected.
In a statement shared on X, Eurostar UK confirmed that Border Force had been hit by an outage on the systems that customs officers use to check passports.
They said that other forms of transport were likely to be affected by the outage and that the company “have no idea” when the issue will be resolved.
Really bad delays travelling from Paris to London on @Eurostar Have been queuing for two hours and this is the view from where I stand. Does nobody care about small children and the elderly? #paris #eurostar pic.twitter.com/ebiF4CABYR
— Marc Maier (@177arc) May 30, 2024
One passenger warned of “carnage” at Paris’ Gare du Nord, while another described scenes at the station as a “shambles”.
Passengers shared pictures of long queues of “hundreds” of passengers, including children on half-term holidays.
The Eurostar website shows that the 1.30pm train from Gare du Nord to St Pancras’ arrived three hours late.
Border Force have been contacted for comment.
Earlier this month, an IT outage at Border Force passport e-gates caused chaos at airports across the UK.
Seriously, @Eurostar 🥵🥵🥵 pic.twitter.com/AzAZs3Lt9t
— Annegrethe Rasmussen (@Annegrethe) May 30, 2024
Pictures showed huge queues of passengers in front of the gates at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and Edinburgh as thousands waited for their passports to be checked.
E-gates are a key component of the Border Force operation and there are more than 270 of them in place at 15 air and rail ports across the UK, according to the Government’s website.
It comes as hundreds of Border Force officers at Heathrow Airport are set to launch a three-day strike on Friday in a dispute over rosters.
The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said more than 500 of its members working on passport control at terminals 2, 3, 4 and 5 are taking action in protest at new rosters being imposed.
The union said more than 250 staff face losing their jobs or being moved on to other work against their will.
