Trouble in the tunnels

Old mountaineers have an adage: there is no such thing as bad weather, merely poor planning and equipment. That saying sprang to mind when the scale of problems affecting Eurostar trains from London to Paris and Brussels became apparent. Why were no fewer than five trains stuck in the tunnel? Why did the evacuation take so long? And what awaits the 50,000 travellers booked to travel at the weekend and on Monday, as the hours tick by to Christmas? Those were some of the questions we tried to get to grips with the seizing up of large parts of the UK's travel industry. Lisa from Winchmore Hill told of her distress at the way her easyJet flight to Geneva had been cancelled at the last minute, and of the problems she'd had getting a refund from the airline.
The picture is no better across the Atlantic, where the north-eastern US has been battered by storms, ice and snow – with many cancellations from New York, Philadelphia in Washington, and long delays on the flights that have operated.
Heated discussions, too, on the BA cabin crew dispute; "A reasonable man gets nowhere in negotiations," is a quote attributed to the chief executive, Willie Walsh.
I talked about whether the judge who awarded an injunction to the airline, outlawing a strike, should have taken into account the level of disruption rather than restricting herself to questions about the technical competence of the ballot. And even if there were flaws in the ballot, plenty of people have pointed out that the numbers involved could not have materially affected the outcome of the ballot. Richard Quest of CNN took the view that once BA sorts itself out, passengers will forget the stress of the now-suspended stoppage, and be lured back by low fares and good service.
And in today's programme there were not one but two heckle of the week, fairly representative of a large number of robust comments from a wide range of people, many of whom say they are BA cabin crew or their friends or partners. Let me stress that I have no certainty about the connection that the people who sent them in may have with British Airways or any other airline. The first is from someone calling himself David: "Not only do you give me the creeps to look at, you have spoken utter rubbish [that's not the word he used] about the life and pay of cabin crew. You are a freeloading nobody who never was. At least all the crew now know who you are". And another from "Laurie": "Get your facts straight before critisising BA crew. God help you if you ever fly BA again. If I were you I'd never leave my seat, do not eat or drink anything and only travel with hand luggage."
Wherever you are this Christmas, I hope your travels are happy, successful and peaceful. Back with you next week.
Simon