Blizzards blanket Le Shuttle's 'edge'
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• Snow blizzards and strong winds combined last week to close Eurotunnel's Le Shuttle services, which had previously claimed a competitive edge over ferries because of its "immunity" to the elements.
Truck drivers were delayed for up to 12 hours in wintry conditions as drifting snow forced Eurotunnel to suspend shuttle services last Tuesday. High winds caused such a build-up of snow, that the company was unable to clear the 12 ramps leading up to the shuttle services. Trucks queued 3km back onto the motorway on the French side as services ground to a halt.
The heavy snow-fall across Kent blocked most of the approach roads to Folkestone, preventing many Eurotunnel employees from getting to work.
To add to Eurotunnel's misery, some of its loading equipment was frozen out of the action, while a points failure caused further delays by halting a Eurostar passenger train in the tunnel for three hours.
The backlog of freight traffic was not cleared until Wednesday lunchtime and waiting truck drivers were encouraged to use the truck stop at Ashford. A spokeswoman for Le Shuttle denied that car drivers were given priority. She said: "It was half term holidays and we were looking forward to the extra traffic, but we concentrated on freight and tourists who called us to postpone their journeys if they could."
At least truck drivers had some hope of reaching the UK as Eurotunnel struggled to cope with the weather conditions at Folkestone. CM staff booked on the car crossing witnessed angry scenes as the service ground to a halt. We were offered a choice of waiting for a possible train at around 17:0018:00hrs, or accepting a ticket voucher for the P&O ferry service. Despite strong winds in the English Channel, the ferry companies were still running a reduced service.