Eurostar short notice cancellation

[BillCarson]

Not sure where best to ask this, but there are other Eurostar topics.

My family went to Paris a few weeks back, and 12 hrs before our return trip on Eurostar they cancelled out train. This was seemingly due to short notice industrial action, but I could find no news about it in English media at least if it was a strike. They cancelled 8 of the 12 trains that day so they did not put us on a new train and instead their options were, book on a different day, get a refund of the return ticket, or unofficially turn up to Gare Du Nord and fight your way through throngs of angry travelers to see if we could get standing room for a 3+hr train journey.

As I needed to get back on Monday I instead overpaid for a last minute plane ticket back to Heathrow and a taxi (as the Lizzie line was also closed that day) as we were not going to stand for 3hrs even if we were lucky enough to even get on a train.

I’ll at least try and get a refund of the train tickets for all that’s worth, but is there anything that I could also claim from Eurostar or insurance? I know trains don’t have the same level of protection as flights, because normally you can reroute more easily except for something like Eurostar. Even we’d decided to not fly back would Eurostar really be able to leave us stuck in Paris without at least paying for our hotel until we could be rebooked?

[Rich_A]

You have a lot of the same rights as you would on a flight. The Rail Passenger Rights have a lot of similarities to 261/2001, including the right to rerouting (whether by air, I don’t know) and accommodation, food etc.

Note that strikes aren’t considered as extraordinary circumstances, and the rerouting should be covered anyway.

Getting them to agree to that is a different matter! In any case, never accept the refund until you’ve exhausted all other avenues, as it generally absolves them of all other obligations. And have a read of this

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/rail/index_en.htm

[JDB]

@BillCarson – you posted the same question in yesterday’s chat and received a reply. It’s not helpful to duplicate posts and will often result in zero responses.