Business Blog - Eurostar report
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The authors of the hard-hitting report on Eurostar’s
pre-Christmas operational and communications debacle completed
their probe in less than two months.
Their 88-report, unveiled at The Gymnasium, alongside St Pancras
International, was a masterly analysis of what went wrong.
It was an example to traditionally snail-paced Royal Commissions
and other Government inquiries .
Chris Garnett, who is brother to the former Tory
minister Virginia Bottomley, is no stranger to Kent of course. When
he was commercial director of Eurotunnel in the 1990s, alongside
the legendary chief executive Sir Alastair Morton - sadly no longer
with us - I interviewed him at his home in
Biddenden.
We kept in touch occasionally when he went to GNER, also no
longer with us.
When our paths crossed briefly in The Gymnasium before he went
out to face a barrage of cameras and questions, he told me how much
he had enjoyed returning to the county to research the Eurostar
Independent Review. “It brought back a lot of fond memories,” he
told me.
At the news conference, packed with journalists and film crews
from across the world, Garnett put on a confident display, coming
out with some good soundbites.
He was particularly emotive on the subject of the EuroDisney
train which was stranded in the tunnel with 600 mums, dads,
grandparents and tots on board. It turned into a 16-hour journey
from hell. Too hot, a French crew who hid away, no air
conditioning, overflowing loos. A shuttle train into which they
were transferred was no better, with one carriage designated a
toilet area. No wonder Garnett called the conditions appalling.
He wound up his speech with a masterful reprimand: “You
Eurostar, get it right so it never happens again.”
Future Eurostar passengers will be grateful to Garnett and
Gressier for a safer ride if bosses take careful note - and
act.
Monday, March 01 2010
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