Review of rail problems to begin immediately as airline passengers also face travel chaos

Eurostar trains between Britain and France will start running again tomorrow, the company confirmed tonight, blaming powdery snow for a series of catastrophic breakdowns.

The cross-channel train service has been suspended for three days after a series of breakdowns on Friday night, which left 2,500 people trapped on trains inside the Channel Tunnel for up to 16 hours.

Tomorrow trains will depart from 7:30am and run until 6:30pm, the train operator said. Only passengers holding tickets for Saturday or Sunday will be allowed aboard.

Customers holding tickets for Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 December will be eligible for travel on Wednesday, while those with reservations for Wednesday 23 or Thursday 24 December can travel on Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile, Eurotunnel is still not accepting new cars on its cross-channel service and airlines are also warning of delays and cancellations to flights as severe weather warnings were put in place across parts of the UK.

A Eurotunnel spokesman said the Folkestone car shuttle terminal had been shut "for the time being". The company is not accepting new bookings today, and only people with reservations will be able to use the tunnel. "The weather in France is still very bad, so everyone has to travel with patience and accept that the weather and driving conditions are not good," the spokesman said. He urged travellers planning to check the company's website.

Bad weather in the south-east meant many Eurotunnel employees could not get to work, resulting in fewer car shuttle services running than usual. This, coupled with the high volume of traffic due to the proximity of Christmas, has resulted in a backlog of traffic waiting to use the tunnel. "There will be extra delays for people, but we are running services and will get people across to the continent today," the spokesman said.

Eurostar train services were suspended while the company tested modifications made to its trains to cope with the severe weather.

Eurostar's chief executive, Richard Brown, said he was "very, very sorry" about what had happened. Speaking at the company's London terminal at St Pancras station, Brown said the weather that had hit northern France was "unprecedented" in Eurostar's 15-year history.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is reported to have ordered the head of the French train authority to get Eurostar traffic moving again by Tuesday. The French government said it would launch its own investigation into the problems, which have so far disrupted travel for an estimated 55,000 people.

"We cannot imagine that this mode of transport, which is fundamental between France and England, between England and Belgium and the rest of continental Europe doesn't work because it's snowing outside," the French transport minister, Dominique de Bussereau, told Europe-1 radio in Beijing. "Therefore, the government is ...demanding that measures be taken so this does not happen in the future."

The UK transport minister, Sadiq Khan, said he was "angry" that passengers had still not been told what was going on and urged Eurostar to inform the public about its plans. "I hope this will include the resumption of services as soon as possible," he added. "It's important that passengers get absolute clarity of what they can expect over the next few days."

Earlier today, Eurostar announced that it had launched an immediate inquiry into the problems which left people stranded in France, England, Belgium and the Channel tunnel itself.

"The review will be led by Christopher Garnett, former chief executive of GNER and formerly commercial director of Eurotunnel, in conjunction with Monsieur Claude Gressier who is inspecteur général des ponts et chaussées," a Eurostar statement said.

Eurostar Chief Operating Officer Nicolas Petrovic blamed "very light, powdery snow" of a type normally found in mountains rather than in the plains of northern France for the chaos. The company has commissioned an independent inquiry.

He said the snow had got into the trains so that when they entered the much warmer tunnel, the snow melted and caused condensation that affected the electrical power systems.

"It's the first time we have these snow conditions in this place in 15 years," Petrovic told a delayed news conference at the Eurostar terminal at the Gare du Nord station in Paris.

Eurostar hopes to run two out of three services on Tuesday after satisfactory tests on modified trains on Monday, but Petrovic encouraged stranded passengers to try to find other ways home if they could, saying Eurostar would cover the cost.

Petrovic said the company, which normally carries about 40,000 people a day between Britain and continental Europe, expected services to be back to normal by December 28.

Flights to and from Britain have also been hit by delays and cancellations. Easyjet today cancelled more than 80 flights and warned customers they may not be able to transfer onto other flights during the next few days, while many airports reported delays.

Some airlines said they were increasing capacity on services between London and Paris to help stranded Eurostar passengers, but flights from Charles de Gaulle airport, in Paris, were facing severe delays and cancellations because of the adverse weather.

The cold conditions have disrupted flights from many British airports, with people travelling to and from the US and Europe facing delays. Inverness and Aberdeen airports remain closed until further notice, while flights from Glasgow and Edinburgh airports could also face delays.

Easyjet published a list of more than 80 flights it had been forced to cancel. Spokesman Andrew McConnell said passengers should check the airline's website before travelling to the airport. Affected passengers can request refunds or transfer to other flights, but may struggle to get alternative flights before Christmas.

Other airlines, including Flybe, have also cancelled services to and from the UK.

Manchester airport has been hit by delays. Only one runway was open this morning, with the airport handling just 12 flights an hour. A spokesman said both runways were now in operation and the airport was back to its normal working capacity of 40 flights an hour.

The airport is dealing with a backlog of flights from yesterday, but expected the remaining 10 flights from then to take off today. The spokesman added that many flights to the east coast of the US, Amsterdam and Paris would be delayed due to problems at airports in those areas.

Six flights have so far been cancelled at Bristol airport, where many flights faced delays of one to two hours, a spokeswoman said.

In London, the majority of flights arriving and departing from Gatwick airport were subject to delays, with most at least an hour behind schedule. A spokesman said the airport was operating a "good service" but warned that airlines were responsible for any delays. Heathrow experienced delays on some inbound flights from the US today, but a spokesman said no delays or cancellations were ongoing.

Luton airport, which shut for several hours on Friday, is operating with some slight delays. Passengers have been advised to check with airlines before travel.

On Friday, more than 2,000 Eurostar passengers spent the night in the Channel tunnel after trains failed, with Eurostar attributing the breakdown to the sudden change between the freezing temperatures above ground and the heat of the tunnel.

The commercial director, Nick Mercer, said the failure had been due to a "strange combination of factors".

"It was the amount of snow, which was higher than we experienced before, it was lighter than normal, fluffier, and the temperature inside the tunnel and the humidity was higher than normal," he said.

Yesterday, Mercer said engineers believed they had found the cause and would work on the trains overnight to try to solve the problem.

The ferry operator P&O laid on a fleet of coaches to get passengers across the Channel and on to Paris or Brussels. "At one point, we had 500 Eurostar passengers at Dover and at Calais," spokesman Chris Laming said. "We've spoken to Eurostar about this arrangement and they've agreed to pick up the tab ‑ we'll certainly send them the bill."

It looks as though there will be no respite from the freezing weather that has triggered much of the transport chaos, with the Met Office warning of more heavy snow over the next two days.

It has five flash warnings in place across the Midlands, the east of England, south-east England and south-west England.

Forecasters also warned that there were likely to be widespread icy road conditions in Yorkshire and the Humber, London and the south-east, and the east Midlands.