Eurostar snow chaos lesson on transport security

5.00.00pm GMT Thu 11th Feb 2010

Sarah Ludford (left) and Sharon Bowles MEP (right) at the launch of Eurostar's independent review.

Ahead of the publication of the report into Eurostar's snow-related breakdowns and cancellations over the Christmas period, London Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford, a Eurostar frequent traveller, said:

"Eurostar's independent inquiry has been conducted in a commendably speedy manner. The same could not be said of their evacuation procedures."

"The chaotic scenes of passengers waiting 16 hours in grim conditions to be taken out of the tunnel and the almost complete break-down of communication within and between Eurostar and Eurotunnel must never be repeated."

"This time it was snow, but next time it could be terrorist attack. There seems little to show for a flurry of EU and UK government words and good intentions in the last 6 years about protection of key infrastructure like the Channel Tunnel."

"A 2008 European law requires EU states to ensure that 'operator security plans' exist for major rail transport and other infrastructure. While this law does not bite until next year, it would be astonishing if a similar plan did not already exist. The question is: what happened to it at Christmas 2009?"

ENDS