Eurostar sued for false imprisonment

A PASSENGER who was trapped for five hours on a Eurostar train shortly before Christmas is suing the rail operator for false imprisonment.

Willy Risi was on one of four trains that broke down on the evening of December 18.

Instead of getting into London at 20.35 that evening, the passengers were evacuated from the Channel Tunnel at 1.00 in the morning and transferred on to another train, which got stuck at Ashford between 2.00 and 7.00.

Mr Risi told France Soir that after seeking advice from his lawyer, he had decided to begin legal action.

"We had no food or water and the doors were locked," he said. "We were there for five hours without any information. It's false imprisonment, pure and simple."

Eurostar says it has set aside €11m to compensate the 100,000 travellers who were affected by the series of breakdowns due to the bad weather.

The rail operator announced record passenger numbers in 2009 - up 1.7% to 9.2 million - with most of the increase coming from the Brussels route, not Paris.