Eurotunnel and Dover queues: Warning of another busy weekend of Channel traffic

Image source, PA Media

People hoping to cross the Channel this weekend are being warned it will be very busy after three days of delays.

There were miles of tailbacks built up in Kent due to holiday traffic.

There is a major incident that is still in force.

It took very little to cause congestion and it was a very vulnerable situation.

Mr Howe said that the queue was normal for a Monday.

P&O Ferries said there was a queue of around an hour for French border checks and that it had increased.

Over the weekend traffic built up on the roads leading to the Eurotunnel terminal in Folkestone and Port of Dover after the M20 motorway through Kent to the south coast was closed due to an operation called "Brock".

Car drivers got stuck with miles of tailbacks when they were diverted to smaller roads.

Mr Howe said that things were back to normal but that there was not much that could be done to create congestion.

He said the coming weekend was expected to be the second busiest of the summer holidays, with traffic crossing the Channel back to pre-pandemic levels and additional checks at the border.

A crash on the motorway compounded issues with a lack of resources at the port.

It only takes a crash on the road, a train breakdown, or a power failure to make it a big problem.

There needs to be more infrastructure in place to take traffic off the road.

He said that we need more infrastructure in place because we shouldn't have to queue up.

John Keefe, director of public affairs for Getlink, said the issue over the weekend had been caused by the expected heavy traffic of passengers getting away on holidays alongside an unexpected amount of truck traffic.

Bringing in digital technology to speed up border checks, increasing the resilience of the road network, and improving the Channel tunnel railway network are some of the things that could ease the situation.

The solutions are definitely there. These solutions have been around for a long time. They have been at the table for a long time.

Hopefully this will focus attention

There was a war of words between France and the UK after the delays at the port.

The French transport minister highlighted the additional border checks brought on by the UK's decision to leave the European Union.

The coastbound M20 between junctions 9 and 11 in Kent reopened on Monday, but it is still closed to non-freight traffic between junctions 8 and 9.