Eurostar said it will resume all services through March today, but warned there may be some last-minute delays and cancellations after a power supply problem in the tunnel yesterday, which caused trains to be suspended for most of yesterday.

The outage, caused by a fault in the system’s overhead power supply, disrupted the plans of thousands of passengers in London, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam yesterday (Tuesday) during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year.

In a statement on its website this morning, high-speed train operator Eurostar said: “Services have resumed today following a power problem in the Channel Tunnel yesterday and some further problems with the rail infrastructure overnight. We plan to operate all our services today. Due to chain effects, there may be some delays and possible last-minute cancellations,” he said.

Thousands of Eurostar passengers saw their holiday schedules upended over the festive period after the rail company suspended all its services between London and mainland Europe (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels) yesterday due to a technical problem. “There was a power problem in the Channel Tunnel, which was followed by the shutdown of one of the LeShuttle (Eurotunnel)” (a train carrying vehicles between France and the UK), a Eurostar spokesman explained.

The company offered customers who saw their journeys cancelled the option to exchange their ticket for free or cancel their booking for a refund or voucher.

“Up to 6 hours” trapped inside a stranded train

There was chaos on train services over the past 24 hours, with passengers remaining stranded for more than six hours inside trains as repeated delays hit Eurostar services.

A passenger travelling on the 19:01 service to Paris told the BBC that for several hours he remained trapped in a train at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, with staff telling him there was a “50% chance of the train reaching Paris and a 50% chance of it returning to London”. “My plans for New Year’s Day are now in the hands of the tunnel managers,” the man said indignantly.

Dennis van der Sten from the Netherlands had a similar experience, heading to Amsterdam to celebrate with his family, but was stranded for six hours on a train without power until the train finally started moving again. Another passenger described his experience as “a roller coaster of emotions” that lasted several hours until his train finally reached Brussels.