by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Struggling Eurostar resumed limited services today amid mounting anger at the catalogue of technical and communications failures that plunged the service into chaos.

The high-speed operator is facing huge compensation claims as bosses face pressure from British and French Governments to explain what went wrong.

The company has suffered huge damage to its reputation, principally for its inadequate communication with passengers at stations and the way it handled the nightmare for 2,000 trapped in trains that broke down inside the Channel Tunnel.

The ownership of the company is split three ways between the French, British and Belgian states, which makes unusually vulnerable to criticism from Government.

And its routes will be opened to competition next year, possibly from Deutsche Bahn and Air France

Eurostar directors have already commissioned an independent probe into the situation which left tens of thousands of passengers stranded at Ebbsfleet, Ashford International, St Pancras International, Paris, Lille and Brussels.

Christopher Garnett, who lived in Biddenden when he was commercial director for Eurotunnel, has been chosen to chair the review. He previously chaired railway company GNER, and is now a member of the Olympic Delivery Authority.

The Financial Times has today, Tuesday, reported that French president Nicholas Sarkozy ordered the chairman of Eurostar Guillaume Pepy to the Elysee Palace to explain his company’s performance that the French transport minister called "unacceptable".

Eurostar has defended its performance, saying that an unprecedented combination of snow and freezing temperatures caused the breakdown. But the company has yet to explain fully why its handling of the situation was so poor.

Richard Brown, the beleaguered chief executive of Eurostar, is due to replace Mr Pepy in a management shake-up early in 2010, with Nicolas Petrovic, chief operating officer, taking over from Mr Brown. But rail commentator Christian Wolmar has said that the latest debacle could hasten management changes.