HELL Brits face travel chaos for the whole summer
FRUSTRATED holidaymakers were yesterday warned that the UK’S travel misery could last until September.
Major incident status remained in place in Kent as huge queues of cars waited to get to Dover and the Eurotunnel terminal at Folkestone.
Traffic was once again bumper-tobumper as 10,000 cars passed through the Port of Dover – with one exhausted traveller reporting a wait of 30 hours to get to Europe.
There were also around 3,000 lorries parked on the M20. Natalie Chapman, of haulier group Logistics UK, said some lorry drivers had been waiting to cross the Channel for “well over 18 hours”.
Yesterday, ferry firm P&O told passengers to allow six hours to clear the approach roads and security checks, but lowered it to four later in the day.
This weekend is expected to be one of the busiest for foreign travel after most schools in England and Wales broke up.
Gridlock
Airports were packed, motorists were advised this weekend would be the busiest of the summer and rail pas- sengers also faced delays.
Pictures posted online showed people walking their dogs on the M20 while one family was even seen playing badminton in the middle of the road.
Travellers stuck in the Kent gridlock told how it was taking several hours to move a couple of miles.
Michael Ackroyd and his family were travelling from Saddleworth, near Oldham, to Dijon in France.
They left their hotel near Dartford at 4.30am and arrived in Folkestone for the Eurotunnel at 6.30am – but then moved only three miles in eight hours.
Paul and Wendy Nicholas, from Brockenhurst, Hants, were heading to the German city of Cologne to join a Saga river cruise.
They took a taxi to a hotel near Folkestone where they were due to catch a coach to take them to the port. But the retired pair were unable to reach the town due to motorway closures.
Paul, a former assistant chief constable, said: “The journey went superbly until we were just two miles from the Holiday Inn in Folkestone. It was absolutely chock-a-block.
“We tried some country roads and they were all solidly blocked.”
The couple then caught a train to the port to meet their coach but were left waiting for hours after their bus got stuck in traffic elsewhere.
Yesterday, Paul, 76, said: “At this point, it was 18 miles away and had moved just 800 yards in four hours. We’ve no idea
when the coach is going to get here or how long it’ll take us to get to Cologne to join the ship, which is meant to depart at 5.15pm. It’s been a disaster.”
Wife Wendy, 68, a retired probation officer, said: “It’s just gridlocked.”
The couple said 150 people were due to join the seven-night cruise but most of them were stuck on the coach in Kent.
Paul added: “This volume of people is normal for Dover – they’ve coped with it before so something must be different.
“I can only think there’s a bit more
Delays of up to 30hrs reported at Dover port
We tried some country roads… they were
all blocked
formality now than there used to be. I suppose this has been the first big test for the Port of Dover since Brexit.”
As frustrated travellers battled the gridlock, the political blame game raged.
Port of Dover chiefs said Friday’s delays were down to a lack of French border officials but claimed staff across the Channel had been “fully mobilised” to clear the backlog.
Tory leadership candidate Liz Truss also urged France to act over “entirely avoidable” delays at the border.
The Foreign Secretary said the holdups were “unacceptable” and blamed a lack of French officials on duty.
Ms Truss said: “We need action from France to build up capacity at the border to limit any further disruption for British tourists and to ensure this appalling situation is avoided in future.
“We will be working with the French authorities to find a solution.” Dover
MP Natalie Elphicke said “long, long delays” were expected again today and urged French authorities to “apologise to Dover residents and holidaymakers for the holiday chaos”.
But French politician Pierre-henri Dumont, Republican MP for Calais, blamed the chaos on the “aftermath of Brexit”, which he said had slowed down the flow of passengers due to the need for more checks.
Mr Dumont also told how the British government had “rejected a few months ago a proposal to double the number of passport booths” for French police to work from in Dover.
His comments, linking the delays to Brexit, were backed up by the Port of Dover chief executive Doug Bannister, who said it must be recognised that there will be “increased transaction times” at the border due to the extra checks needed.
He said: “We are operating in a post-brexit environment which does mean passports need to be checked and stamped and indeed, the capable people that man the booths, Police aux frontieres, they’re doing the job that they need to do now.”
He told how the port had “created more border capacity so that the overall throughput can be maintained” and said that while its modelling had shown some “very peak busy days during the summer season… for the most part, we should be able to cope”.
The RAC estimated 18.8 million car journeys would take place between Friday and Monday. Jack Cousens, head
of roads policy for the AA, said: “Drivers should continue to expect disruption and delays on major holiday routes to the south-west, eastern coast and Dover and Folkestone.
“Between now and the beginning of September, when schools return, each Friday and Saturday will be busy.
“This is because these are the main switchover days for holiday lets.”
Meanwhile, at Bristol Airport, hundreds of passengers were snaking around terminals by 4.30am yesterday. Big queues were also reported at Heathrow and Gatwick.
And rail passengers struggled to reach their destinations after strike action by Greater Anglia left the network with heavily reduced services.
More mayhem is expected on the railways on Wednesday as 40,000 workers strike over pay and conditions.