Eurotunnel profit almost wiped out last year after fire, Eurostar shutdown hammer earnings

Eurotunnel net profit slumps in 2009

PARIS — Eurotunnel SA, the operator of the English Channel tunnel, on Tuesday blamed a fire in the undersea route between France and Britain for nearly wiping out its profit in 2009.

Eurotunnel said its net profit sank to €1.4 million ($1.9 million) from €40 million a year earlier, when a restructuring deal with shareholders had helped end years of financial uncertainty and avoid bankruptcy.

Part of the tunnel was closed after a fire broke out Sept. 11, 2008, aboard one of the trains that whiz back and forth through the 50-kilometer (30-mile) tunnel between Britain and France.

Full capacity was only restored in February last year, leading to a drop in traffic of Eurotunnel’s car and truck shuttle service as well as the Eurostar passenger train service through the tunnel.

Eurotunnel earnings were also hit by disruption to the Eurostar train service, which pays to use the tunnel and was shut for four days in December due to cold weather, with unusually dry, powdery snow getting into the trains’ engines. The shutdown affected 40,000 people.