Holidaymakers setting off on the summer getaway face delays across the transport network over the weekend with queues or cancellations set to hit roads, rail, air and ferries.
Travellers heading to Europe by ferry have been warned of waits of up to two and a half hours at Dover this weekend, and many other areas are forecast to suffer from heavy congestion.
The weekend is one of the summer’s peak travel periods and long delays can be expected on much of the road network, while rail passengers face disruption from rail strikes.
The RAC has warned of severe road congestion this weekend with 12.6 million motorists set to get behind the wheel between Friday – the worst day for travel – and Monday, causing “bumper-to-bumper traffic”, with hotspots including the M5 south from near Bristol and the M25 clockwise between Junction 10 and Junction 6.
Passengers are also set for problems on the railways, with strikes by the RMT and an overtime ban by train divers’ union Aslef, which warned of “serious disruption” across the country.
Passengers at 15 train companies across the country will be affected after Aslef banned rest day working until Saturday, 22 July.
At Dover, as port authorities scramble to avoid a repeat of Easter’s travel chaos in Dover, officials have advised drivers to arrive three hours before their ferry sails to cut the risk of logjams, but no earlier.
Post-Brexit checks have seen processing times soar. Coach travellers having their passports stamped by French border officials at Dover endured waits of up to 20 hours over Easter.
Around 10,500 vehicles are expected at the port on Saturday during what is likely to be one of its busiest days since pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
Plans put in place by Dover Port authority, Police Aux Frontières and Border Force, and the port’s three ferry operators include spreading travel demand for coaches and ferry operators on peak times.
An extra four positions for coach processing capacity have been put in place at the French border. Two available additional booths will also provide the port with up to nine lanes of car traffic for tourists.
Tony Smith, a former head of Border Force, said delays were being caused by additional checks from French border police in Dover, but queues at the port would get worse when a new system of biometrics is introduced.
“You have to ensure that the French police have got enough lanes, and enough officers on duty at busy times, to deal with the increase in traffic,” he told i.
“In Dover, you don’t hand your passport to any British officer. When you check in at P&O Ferries they will scan your passport and send us the data.
“The French still operate a manual passport control. You do have to hand your passport over to French police border police. And that’s where the snarl ups happen.”
He added: “I presume the French police have promised to send them additional crews during this busy period so that they’ve got greater capacity to clear the passenger traffic.”
While solutions were coming down the line in terms of improved technology, he warned that French checks would get “a whole lot worse” for British travellers next year once fingerprints and photographs are required.
These biometric checks on non-EU travellers will be carried out as part of the bloc’s Entry/Exit System (EES), but the scheme has been pushed back until later this year or 2024.
“It’s going to be a complete nightmare unless they introduce some form of technology so you can do that stuff away from the ports,” he added.
Doug Bannister, CEO, Port of Dover, said: “We are advising passengers not to arrive more than three hours before sailing and that, in the case of any issues with the sailing they are booked on, they will be placed on the next available sailing.
“When passengers arrive at the Port of Dover, they will be processed through border controls – anticipated to take around 90 minutes on peak days.
“However, our modelling indicates that processing times may be up to 2.5 hours during the peak hours of 6am to 1pm during the first couple of Saturdays and Sundays of the summer holidays, due to the extreme popularity of these days.”
