Questions

Some basics are still missing from coverage of the Eurostar cold weather debacle. 6 trains "failed" - but how many trains have they got ? Why are the engines that pull the Eurotunnel services still working - what's different ? Don't Swiss trains go in and out of tunnels in cold weather without damage ? What's so different about this cold weather that caused six failures ? Is this a repairable fault or a design failure ? Will services only run when it gets warmer ?

One problem is that Eurostar has been slow on social media (its Twitter account is, unhelpfully, called Little Break. There, the latest update is a link to a press statement from Friday).

"As we suspected, the acute weather conditions in northern France have caused the disruption. Every year we carry out a ‘winterisation’ programme of the entire fleet which to date has successfully protected our trains. We now know, however, that we need to further enhance the snow screens and snow shields in the power cars of the trains. We have already started making the modifications and to ensure that these new protection measures work effectively we are conducting a further series of test runs tomorrow. Our priority is ensuring that when we resume services we provide our customers with a robust and reliable operation".

OK, let's see film of the modifications in progress on our screens today...