A Eurostar train from London to Paris arrived in the French capital yesterday almost 10 hours late after passengers were forced to change trains twice during an overnight journey that normally takes just over two hours.
"There was a whole series of technical problems and mix-ups but the situation is completely unacceptable," Mireille Faugere, director of passenger services for French rail operator SNCF, told reporters waiting for the train to arrive at the Gare du Nord in Paris.
Eurostar, which carried a record 8.26 million passengers in 2007, has been boosted by the opening of the renovated St Pancras terminal in London last year and posted a 21.3 per cent rise in passenger numbers in the first three months of the year.
Faugere said bad luck had also been involved in one of the worst delays ever suffered by a Eurostar train but added that an inquiry had been ordered to identify the causes of the incident.
After leaving London at 8 p.m., a technical problem forced some 640 passengers to change trains in the northern town of Lille at around 11 p.m. A second breakdown in the replacement train then left them stranded in the middle of the countryside north of Paris.
"They didn't say anything for hours and eventually the police turned up and said 'right, everyone off'," said Jonathan Childs from London, who was visiting Paris on a stag weekend with a group of friends.
"We had to walk all the way through in the pitch black, then off that train, along the tracks onto the next train and all the way through that. So, you can imagine, it was a long night."
F1, K1 million miles apart
While the former features super-slim millionaires who enjoy all the trappings their Formula One superstardom affords them, the latter is a vehicle for go-kart enthusiasts who tinker with engines in their spare time.
Yet come September, the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen could do worse than turn to their lowly cousins for a few words of advice.
For it is the go-karters who will be the first motorsport racers to experience the Marina Bay circuit which will host the world's first night-time Formula One Grand Prix on September 28.
The finale of Singapore's K1 Motorsport Festival - the culmination of a six-month travelling show to popularise mortorsport in Singapore - will take place on the same tarmac that will host the F1 race.
The K1 races are due to be staged at the Pit Building of the Marina Bay F1 track over July 26 and 27. That section will house the paddock for the F1 cars come September.
Singaporeans fight sex trade
Residents in an area of Singapore have erected street lamps in the hope that bightly lit alleys will keep prostitutes at bay, a newspaper said yesterday. The Straits Times said the residents of Geylang, which houses Singapore's red-light district, were tired of prostitutes roaming nearly every street in the area, and were 'ring-fencing' their homes with lamps in a 'turf war' against sex workers.
Additional lamps have been erected along a 300-metre alley and more are to come, the newspaper said. Residents are also planning to throw parties and organise community events to 'claim back territory', it said.
"You don't have to be scared. Without the lights, you always have to look behind you," the paper quoted a 70-year-old resident as saying.
Prostitution is legal in Singapore but soliciting is not.
Celebrities don't aid causes
Fifty-one per cent of Americans say celebrities make little or no positive difference to the issues they promote while 45 per cent say they have a large or some positive influence, according to a new survey. Oprah Winfrey was seen as the best champion of causes with 49 per cent of those surveyed in the Harris Poll, saying she was very effective at raising awareness. The others in the top five were Bono (32 per cent), Angelina Jolie (31 per cent), Brad Pitt (23 per cent) and George Clooney (22 per cent).
Smoke cloud engulfs Buenos Aires
A thick cloud of smoke covered Buenos Aires for a fifth day yesterday, the fallout of field burning that has forced the closure of highways, flight delays and traffic congestion.
The smoke started to appear over the Argentine capital more than a week ago, but visibility deteriorated considerably in the city on Friday and yesterday, with an acrid smell pervading homes and causing watery eyes and sore throats among city residents.
Visibility downtown was barely 500 metres.
Emergency services marshalled traffic in some areas of the city, while the capital's domestic airport Jorge Newbery diverted incoming aircraft to the international airport outside Buenos Aires - where the smoke also caused some flight departure delays.
The dense smoke along highways in rural areas north of Buenos Aires caused traffic accidents that killed at least nine people, officials said on Friday.
Health officials sought to reassure the public that the smoke was not toxic, saying the material burnt was organic. However the municipality of Buenos Aires issued a 'yellow alert' as a precaution.