If you’ve been watching the news, you can’t have missed the mess that Eurostar passengers are in. Some got stuck in a tunnel somewhere between London and Paris. Others have been waiting for the train service to resume. It’s been a disaster, as described by the SMH:

“Exhausted, sometimes teary-eyed passengers appeared in British and French TV broadcasts complaining they had been left underground for more than 15 hours, without food, water or any clear idea of what was going on.”

This morning, the trains were back running again, and people were being loaded on – starting with those who should have been on the trains when they first stopped. Whilst this is a logical way of boarding the trains, there was a lot of confusion because this process hadn’t been communicated. The passengers had no idea who would be loaded on and when. This caused further distress for people who were already fairly wound up and inconvenienced.

Throughout this disaster, clear communication has been sorely lacking. People haven’t known what’s going on. And there is an important lesson here – keep communicating frequently when things go wrong, whether the situation is a disaster, or relatively minor change of schedule. Telling people bad news will never go down well. The only thing worse is not telling them, and them finding out through other means, or when it’s too late for them to do anything about it. Clear, honest, frequent communication is essential.

A couple of other blogs share their reflections on this situation:

Any other lessons to learn?