Family's Channel Tunnel hell

The train they were travelling on developed an electrical fault.

Carole Lawrence, of Pinewoods, Little Common, called the experience "horrific."

Her family, including husband Vic, daughter Sarah and Sarah's fiance David, were travelling to the continent on a day trip last Friday.

The journey became a disaster when, just a few miles outside Calais, their train ground to a halt.

Almost 500 people were left stuck. Mrs Lawrence claims they were left for long periods without water, toilets or fresh air.

"There was no information coming out and it was quite frightening.

"The 'captain' as they call him was on the Tannoy every so often but you could go hours without hearing anything," said Mrs Lawrence.

"There were no toilets because they had been locked up.

"We were able to use them for the first two or three hours but then they had to be locked because they were overflowing.

"My husband wanted to go but couldn't.

"We had some mugs we had brought with us for coffee and eventually he had to go in one of them because he couldn't hold on.

"Some young army cadets from somewhere, and I wish I knew who they were, came along and said if anybody wanted water they had plenty at the front of the carriage.

"They had brought bottles of water with them to take on a trip to Belgium. Then their leaders came through with great big canisters on their backs to give out water.

"After about five hours some French firemen came on with bottles of water.

"There was no air either. People were lying on top of their cars and we forced open some doors connecting the carriages to let some air in."

Eventually a diesel engine was used to pull out the trapped train, but it still took over an hour to reach Calais.

After an early morning start the family eventually reached France at 4.15pm.

They decided to go back using Eurotunnel as they were expecting increased demand on the ferry due to fellow dissatisfied customers who had used the Channel train service.

Mrs Lawrence added: "I'm claustrophobic anyway so it wasn't doing me much good.

"I just kept thinking of all that water above our heads.

"I don't know why we weren't evacuated or used a service tunnel. We just had no information. There must be some strategic plan they are meant to put in place.

"If there was an emergency or a fire that would have been it. I will be writing a letter and want my money back. I shan't be using it again for a very long time though."