About cars being loaded into a non-air conditioned carriage on eurostar, temperatures intolerable, I collapsed?

[herbiwhore]

I've been complaining to le shuttle about this. they say nothing was done wrong and that all procedures were correctly followed - i just cannot believe this is the case.
facts of the matter are we were loaded onto a carriage last august, temperatures reached at least 40 degrees c with no air movement. at the time i was 20 weeks pregnant and after about 5 minutes of being loaded onto the train, i started to feel strange and when I got out of the car I collapsed in the heat, unable to move etc, flat on my back, could not stand up. i had to be carried by my arms and legs by other passengers to an air conditioned carriage. crew members couldnt really do anything but bring a bottle of water there seemed to be no first aid provision at all. an off duty nurse looked after me and she was amazing, laid me out in the back of her car, she was lovely, but it didnt feel right that the actual organisation had no provision for this eventuality.
i think this is really disgraceful and dangerous - customer services at le shuttle have said that 'crew followed all procedures' and that they are 'sorry i am not happy' and i have been issued with a £30 token.
its really not about the money - i have said I will not accept it. it was a horrible experience and I genuinely don't want others to go through it. there seems to be very little transparency of accountability. i've asked for a copy of their policy and procedures, health and safety guidelines, first aid policy etc and heard nothing - am i being unreasonable to think that policy and procedure could not have possibly been followed?

Are you sure nowtodine, on a service like a train? Surely staff should administer aid because your isolated and trapped? Like on a plane or boat.

This is why she should go to the regulator if there is one - in any big business industry regulators change rules that those they regulate have to do business by - in the financial world mortgages were not regulated till relatively late - it all comes from situations where companies have acted incorrectly and do not self regulate rather carry on putting customers in danger/giving bad advice /miss-selling the regulators see this and put laws and regulations in place. Just because it happened in any period before now it does not mean it is right and the businesses have the option of realising that and putting it right and the regulators having to do that for them.

Want2besupermum have you taken the shuttle. There is nowhere to manoeuvre cars in and out of the queue. You just board in turn.

Idefix Closing that carriage would not just have caused losses. It would have meant everyone else backing up, massive delays all day, people waiting in their cars under a hot sun in August and some of those affected would also have been pregnant women or otherwise vulnerable. The OP had a nasty experience but there was nothing the company could realistically, sensibly, and in fairness to other passengers have done that they did not do.

Andrew yes I have taken it and my father helped to build the tunnel. I had the unique opportunity to walk through part of the tunnel before the tracks were put down so I am very aware of the set up.

They could easily sorted out the cars BEFORE they board, you know while they are in line outside. So you are all lined up outside and you know which cars will be in the carriage with no A/C. You identify those cars and knock on the window to check all passengers are fully aware there is no A/C, inform them that they need to move into carriage ahead or behind if they get hot and check no one is pregnant, elderly, very young or disabled. If they are you ask them to wait by the side until that carriage which is not A/Cd is full. It's rather simple IMO.

"I'm on aibu for christs sake of course I haven't let it go!"

Want2bSupermum What a pleasure to cyber-meet another veteran of the Great Walk Through!

I didn't walk through the whole tunnel but would have loved to! I was there while my dad was working on some testing while they were digging and he fixed one of the machines that day. I love tunnels and was fascinated by the whole project so someone senior took me on a tour. I wrote a report on it for a competition in the Times and was a runner up.

I did the full walk for charity - it was an experience!

A business most certainly does have a H&S duty of care to its customers!!

Like all such duties it is one of reasonable care. Disrupting the operation for hours on end and imposing inconvenience and suffering on other passengers is not part of it.

No but handing out water or providing fans, because of AC failure would be.

Water perhaps - fans? Ona 35m journey? I doubt it.

CaptainTripps, I salute you!

It this was in the U.S., the company would have caved well before now and accepted their current procedures are inadequate in respect of an air conditioning failure.

To not even have posted a warning that X carriage has no air con and to walk through to the next carriage surely was the minimum they should have done?

I fully sympathise OP. I've never travelled in the tunnel and probably won't as I hate high bridges and deep tunnels. The dartford tunnel was enough of a challenge for me.