The first Eurostar passengers arrived on the train linking London to Paris on Tuesday after following a three-day ordeal stemming from a suspension of service due to heavy snow falls.

Limited rail service between Britain and France returned yesterday after mechanical anomalies had caused thousands of passengers to become stranded on both sides of the Channel and even prompted French President Sarkozy to publicly brand the Eurostar events as unacceptable incidents.

But despite the resuming of Eurostar service, most of Europe found itself almost paralised after heavy now fall and freezing temperatures created chaos on the roads and forced the cancellation of thousands of flights and trains all over the continent.

Tuesday morning, Eurostar put up a message on its Web site claiming the rail company would offer partial services beginning at 7:30. and lasting until 18:00, British time.

The statement revealed that the company was allowing only Saturday or Sunday ticket-holders to travel on Tuesday. Eurostar also announced it would prioritize travellers with special needs, including the elderly or passengers accompanying young children.

The said that Wednesday travel would opened for Monday and Tuesday ticket-holders.

Shortly after 8;00 on Tuesday morning, the first Eurostar train departed from Paris’ Gare du Nord train station with the maximum allowed capacity of 750 passengers on board.

At the time, Eurostar spokeswoman Aude Criqui said that after two Paris departures and several out of London, everything had appeared to be running smoothly.

Eurostar had carried a series of tests on Monday to pin point the reason behind the rolling stock breakdowns which left thousands of passengers stranded Friday night on five trains heading towards London in the 31-mile Channel Tunnel. Through the course of the entire weekend, it’s been reported that the failures had affected a total of 90,000 passengers.

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