The Channel Tunnel reopened to passenger trains this morning with the first Eurostar train leaving St Pancras station just before 7am.

Eurostar staff said a reduced timetable was running, but because many passengers due to travel today had not shown up they were hopeful most who did would get a train.

Passengers arriving at St Pancras from the Continent today said their journeys on Eurostar were slightly slower than normal and some described being able to smell smoke from Thursday’s fire as the train went through the tunnel.

An information board at the Eurostar departures terminal warned that journey times would be longer than usual and there could be longer waiting times.

The statement said: “Eurostar is operating a temporary timetable and expects to run 12 trains each way between London and Paris, six trains each way between London and Brussels and the daily service each way between London and Disneyland Resort Paris. Customers should turn up at the normal time for their scheduled service and they will be accommodated on the first available train.”

Passengers hoping to take their cars through the tunnel will still have to wait. Eurotunnel said: “We are giving priority to the truck shuttles and Eurostar passengers. At the moment we don’t know when the car shuttles will start again.”

Eurostar said all rail services through the tunnel would likely be disrupted for weeks to come, urging people to travel only if their journey was essential. Spokeswoman Lesley Ritallack said: “With a reduced service we still have a lot of people wanting to travel. We are looking at weeks that we will be running a reduced service with longer journey times.”

Among the holidaymakers who struck lucky at St Pancras today were a group heading for Lake Garda in Italy who left only 45 minutes after their original scheduled time.

Naomi Bunten, 55, a nurse from Birmingham, setting off for a week’s holiday in Lake Garda with her husband Bill, 57. said she had been packing when she heard the news of the fire on Thursday. “We booked the train journey because of the stress of airports and of course this has been so stressful," she said.

Bill and Carol Church, of Loughton, Essex, said they were told yesterday contingency plans were in place for their group to get to Lake Garda if Eurostar services were still not running. Mr Church, 54, said: “It has been pretty well organised. It can’t be helped. We thought there might have been more people here but it’s not chaotic at all."

Debbie Laffan and Reg Plunkett, from Dublin, were due to travel to Disneyland Paris yesterday for their daughter Abi’s fourth birthday, along with relatives from Ireland and London. For them the tunnel fire simply added to an already stressful journey after their Ryanair flight from Dublin was forced to make an emergency landing right after takeoff.

Oxygen masks desended after the tail of the plane hit the runway as it took off, forcing the pilot to abort the flight.

A Ryanair spokesman described the incident as a “tail-strike” and said it was quite common. “As a precautionary measure the aircraft returned with oxygen masks deployed and landed safely in Dublin. All 148 passengers disembarked normally.”

Among the first to return from the Continent to St Pancras today were Janet and Sean Larkin, who had been to Barcelona and Majorca.

They were due to take the Eurostar from Paris last night but had to put up in a hotel instead.

“We were told there would not be any services for the weekend so we booked tickets for the ferry," said Mr Larkin, 54, from Epsom, Surrey.

Mrs Larkin, 49, added: “We got up this morning at 6.30am and saw on the news that trains were running.”

She said the train was about 45 minutes late, but they were given free breakfast: “When we got in the tunnel it really smelled of smoke - it was horrible. We are pleased to be back.”

Elizabeth Ferran, 60, from Belfast also had to stay an extra night in France after a short trip to Ypres. She said her journey from Lille to London was “absolutely brilliant” although she too could smell the smoke.

She said: “We had already booked the Dover ferry for today, but we asked the taxi driver to stop and check. We had five minutes to get on board. They were really lovely and helpful and all were brilliant.”

Anne Jackson, 51, also travelling back from Lille with her daughter Emma, 20, said: “It was a bit slower than normal and it was quite empty - we thought it would be packed.”

The tunnel where the fire took place will remain closed while French authorities investigate the cause of the blaze, which started on a Folkestone to Calais train about seven miles from the French end. Safety inspectors were also examining the tunnel to establish the extent of the damage.

The blaze was finally extinguished yesterday morning after hundreds of firefighters battled through Thursday night to bring it under control.

The tunnel’s closure caused delays on both sides of the Channel, with dozens of passengers stranded and lorries backed up for hours in Dover and Calais. Lorry drivers in Dover spent up to eight hours parked on the M20 waiting to access the port.

Eurostar promised to refund all 60,000 weekend tickets even though Eurotunnel was already suggesting that a limited service might resume.

Coach operators and airlines have announced extra services over the weekend to meet the expected spike in demand caused by the tunnel closure.

There is still no official word on the cause of the fire, although Eurotunnel CEO Jacques Gounon rejected the possibility that brakes on a truck caught fire after overheating.

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