Thousands of stranded passengers just before Christmas and hundreds of holidays ruined has not apparently affected the standing of the Eurostar boss who oversaw the chaos. An estimated 100,000 people were caught out by the closures brought about by heating defects and cold weather.

Eurostar is expected to announce this week the appointment of CEO Nicolas Petrovic to the post of head of the company’s rail operations on January first where he will replace incumbent Richard Brown. Petrovic will not only have a new title but a six-figure increase in his salary with his new role paying around £400,000 per annum.

However, the Christmas chaos has seen calls for the appointment to be rethought, especially after Petrovic stated that he had remained in Paris throughout the closures and has still not managed to inspect the melee. He also came under fire from parent company Eurotunnel who blasted Eurostar executives for trying to deflect blame for the crisis along with lack of passenger care and disregard for safety measures. Eurotunnel told shareholders that an unprecedented crisis had struck rail operator in a statement, with Pterovic shouldering much of the blame.

Several safety precautions were breached last week including telling passengers to bring luggage with them as they were being evacuated from stalled carriages to allowing additional trains to enter a tunnel which had already contained several breakdowns. Lack of food and drinking for stranded passenger’s water was also noted as poor customer service.