Chaos on the Dover ferry: travelers stuck in two-hour queues as Brits head to the continent for the summer holidays
TRAVELERS are stuck in two-hour queues at Dover Port today as Brits head to the continent for the summer holidays.
The Port of Kent said turnaround times for passage checks by French border officials are two hours for coaches and one and a half hours for cars.
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The long waiting times are due to the early start of tourist traffic and the heavy freight traffic.
School days and holiday dates vary across the UK, but many children already have six weeks holiday.
The port announced in a message to waiting passengers specified: “Today is already a popular travel day in Dover and the port is busy handling large volumes of tourist traffic.”
“Teams from the port, Police aux Frontières and our ferry operators are working to get you through as quickly as possible.”
One angry person replied: “I hope you have things in order for the summer period. That tweet suggests you didn’t?”
Another said: “I mean, it’s common sense that volumes are going to increase as the summer period begins.”
“The operators know how many participants to expect because you have to book them before the event. Completely unacceptable. I’d rather you acknowledge your mistakes and just apologize.”
A third tweeted: “They should open more counters and also more staff will help traffic flow and if possible deploying automation systems to have e-gates like airports will be of great help.”
This comes after passengers were stuck on the buses for more than ten hours at the start of the Easter holidays.
Delays in passenger clearance are being attributed to French border officials conducting additional checks and stamping British passports post-Brexit.
Dover TAP, aimed at preventing the port city from becoming overwhelmed by traffic, was put in place for lorries on Friday.
Freight traffic backs up on the left side of the A20 until there is room for it at the port.
Ferry operator DFDS said customers who miss their booked departure will be rebooked on the next available departure.
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