On 23 Dec, 16:47, DavidM wrote:
Been reading the Eurostar thread with interest.

Similar question then ocurred about the failure of gas supplies in
Luton and Barnet. Why the hell do they think it will take until after
christmas to sort out a couple of broken pipes? Maybe there's some bit
of high tech complexity in gas pipes that escapes me.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8427734.stm says "water from
a burst main got into the gas pipes, cutting off the flow" which
sounds a bit strange. The only explanations I can think of are (a)
Murphy struck and the gas main was broken by the digger repairing the
water main, or (b) the water washed away clay which had been plugging
long-undetected leaks. The latter might have revealed a need to
replace a long length ancient pipe to be safe.