If you were thinking of hopping on the Eurostar last weekend, you might have run into a bit of a sticky situation. A whole bunch of Eurostar trains had to be axed thanks to some pretty serious flooding in the tunnels of southern England. And let me tell you, that wasn’t great news for the thousands of passengers who found themselves well and truly stranded – especially with New Year’s Eve just around the corner.

The chaos all kicked off near Ebbsfleet International Station in Kent. That’s where the tunnels got inundated, and let me tell you, it wasn’t a pretty sight. The Met Office had already issued weather warnings for rain, snow, and ice across a big chunk of the country. And it looks like those warnings were well and truly on the money.

The train operator Southeastern didn’t mince their words. The flooding between Ebbsfleet International and London St Pancras International completely blocked the lines, which meant that all trains running between those two stations were given the chop. And when I say “all trains,” I mean all of them. It was a total shut down.

Southeastern said that we should expect the disruption to last until the end of the day. That’s a long time to be twiddling your thumbs, let me tell you. And it wasn’t just a case of a single tunnel shutting down. Oh no, both railway tunnels near Ebbsfleet were affected by the flooding. That meant a big fat nope to any trains running between London St Pancras International and Ebbsfleet International.

So, if you were hoping to catch a train during that time, then I hate to break it to you – you were fresh out of luck. And for anyone who did find themselves stranded, let’s just say that Eurostar and Southeastern had a lot of apologising to do. They weren’t in anyone’s good books, that’s for sure.

So, next time you hop on a train, just remember – sometimes nature has other plans. And boy, when nature decides to throw a spanner in the works, she really knows how to make it count!