Thousands of Train Riders Stranded in Europe
MALVEAUX: Another holiday travel crisis caused by winter weather. This one, instead, in Europe. It's the high-speed train service that links Britain and France. Well, it was canceled for a third day, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. Now, some service is going to resume tomorrow, but many train riders, passengers, are still furious. Here's our CNN's Paula Newton.</s>PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Suzanne, even President Nicolas Sarkozy of France saying, look, I want those trains back on the rails. This has really been a desperate situation. Take a look.</s>NEWTON (voice-over): After getting through 15 winters without service catastrophes, it was a pretty average deep freeze and light snowfall that managed to cripple Europe's high-speed lifeline between Britain and the continent. Passengers have been stranded for days on both sides of the English Channel fighting boredom and desperation as they try to get where they need to be for the holidays. Some were evacuated from crippled hot trains on the weekend and are back at the station in London, again still stranded.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have searched for planes, boats. But everything is stuck. Just for the moment we are here and we can't do anything.</s>NEWTON: And on the other side, in Paris, more frustration and questions. Why now?</s>PETER SKELTON, STRANDED: It's quite pathetic, really, the way that they've acted on it. You know, we've had cold weather in the past. I came two years ago on the Eurostar and it was just as cold as it was now. So, why has it all of the sudden become such an issue that they can't run the trains?</s>NEWTON: Eurostar, the company that operates the services, says this year, for reasons yet to be explained, insulation and other winterization measures failed. But repairs have been made and some service will resume tomorrow.</s>RICHARD BROWN, CEO, EUROSTAR: It will be a somewhat limited service because we have to modify the trains to make sure that they're reliable in service.</s>NEWTON: But the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, joined flustered passengers in demanding a return to service and an explanation. As Europe heads into the busy holiday season, a deep freeze and persistent snowfall will continue to make travel of any kind a real challenge.</s>NEWTON: Suzanne, more headaches to come as they try and work through the backlog. And, really, if you're taking a plane or a train or an automobile, deep-freeze snow sounds a lot like back home, big headache leading up to the busy holiday season -- Suzanne.</s>MALVEAUX: OK, thanks. A lot of people can relate to that. And here are some facts about the Eurostar that you may be interested in. The passenger rail service, it's jointly owned by railroad entities in the United Kingdom, France and Belgium. In 2008, it carried -- this is a record -- 9.1 million passengers. Now, that works out to be about 25,000 per day. And it sold $993 million in tickets. It can travel at speeds faster than 186 miles per hour. Well, the health care bill is taking another critical step forward, but it is not quite the sweeping change that the president had promised. And not a single Republican is on board. Well, we're going to break all that down for you coming up next. Plus, punished for getting pregnant, the strict rules that could lead to a court-martial for women in the military. Plus, it's story time at a boys and girls club. And the guest reader? Well, President Barack Obama himself. Wait until you hear what he told these kids. You don't want to miss this, ahead on THE SITUATION ROOM.