Rail News: Striking French ferry workers disrupt Eurostar again

The Channel Tunnel reopened on Tuesday afternoon following a three-hour shutdown.

Strikes by French ferry workers have closed the port of Calais, blocking ferries on the main route between Britain and Europe.

“Every day the disruption lasts costs United Kingdom PLC millions of pounds… this damaging and risky industrial action is now putting jobs at risk”.

David Cameron spoke to French president Francois Hollande for 10 minutes by phone about the crisis yesterday and the British ambassador visited Calais to liaise with the authorities. They have shown that they can move swiftly to stop any disruption at the tunnel.

With ferry services to Calais suspended, there are fewer opportunities for migrants to cross the Channel and media are reporting there are now some 3,000 waiting.

The strikers forced furious Eurostar and Eurotunnel bosses to suspend all services for the second time in eight days. We will continue to monitor the situation closely in liaison with all our partners in order to resume normal operations as soon as possible.

But reporter Tomos Morgan, who was travelling with a lorry driver to Belgium, said those stranded midway between junctions had to wait up to 12 hours for water.

The entrance to the tunnel was blocked by mad workers who set fire to tires thrown on the tracks, a Reuters witness said.

The British government described the situation as “completely unacceptable”.

Ferries continued to run to and from Dunkirk, but P&O, DFDS and MyFerryLink services between Dover and Calais, the quickest crossing, were suspended. Further industrial action, which started at 2.20pm on Monday, may now keep the port closed until Thursday.

Riot police were also called in as migrants tried to access the tracks and Eurotunnel terminal during the chaos.

“We have registered break-in attempts by migrants this morning at the Eurotunnel site”, said a spokesman for the local council.

Kent Police announced that all phases of Operation Stack – where freight traffic is queued on sections of the M20 – have now been lifted.

Migrants have been taking advantage of slow-moving and queuing traffic by trying to board UK-bound vehicles, forcing some drivers to take long detours to skip Calais altogether.

Dozens of migrants sat on the roadside around the port in the hope of sneaking aboard one of the vehicles, lined up bumper to bumper to limit their chance of getting in the back doors.