From Chips to Chez in 135 Minutes

(NEWSER) - Some 740 passengers had to be evacuated from a packed Eurostar train from Paris last night after the electricity failed. Passengers were plunged into darkness as they awaited rescuers with ladders shortly after the train left the chunnel and headed toward London. More»

Debt-plagued cross-Channel rail company sees light at the end of the tunnel

(NEWSER) - Eurotunnel is in the black for the first time since the France-England tunnel opened in 1994, the BBC reports. The company says it has turned the corner after many troubled years, helped by a sweeping debt restructuring plan and the opening of a new high-speed rail link on the British side that has cut London-Paris travel time to under two hours. More»

Shooting seen as sign of violent super power in decline

(NEWSER) - While Americans are wringing their hands, trying to make some sense of a senseless act, the rest of the world is shaking its head in dismay. To Europeans in particular, the shooting deaths of 6 people and the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is symptomatic of a gun-obsessed nation rattled by the doubt and pessimism of a super power in decline, notes the Christian Science Monitor . Commentators from both the right and left in newspapers in London, Paris, and Berlin decry the toll of rabid political rhetoric, slipping fortunes, and entanglement in two wars. More»

Frustrated travelers camp out in airports, train stations

(NEWSER) - Hundreds of thousands of passengers on their way to family holiday festivities in Europe were camped out instead yesterday at mobbed airports and train stations shut down by record snow and cold. London's Heathrow Airport was largely closed for a second day as wanna-be fliers huddled under emergency blankets on trash-strewn floors, some of them for a third night waiting for their plane to take off. "It's very hard," a passenger with a ticket to Dallas told CNN . "All I want for Christmas is to hug my daughter." Charles De Gaulle and German airports canceled more than a quarter of their flights, and several Eurostar trips were delayed or ditched. More»

Eurostar cites 'severe problems,' sends rescue

(NEWSER) - Four passenger trains—and some 2,000 passengers—are stuck in the tunnel underneath the English Channel, due to “severe problems” caused by the combination of unseasonable cold outside and the warm air inside. At least three were bound from Paris to London, AFP reports, and, says a Eurostar official, “we are trying to get them out with a rescue locomotive.” Meanwhile, the Guardian adds, delays are piling up on both sides of the Channel, as the tunnel has been closed since Friday afternoon. More»