Coach travellers will be asked to delay Channel crossings over Easter as ferry companies and the Port of Dover attempt to avoid a repeat of the shambolic delays that blighted the start of the school holidays last weekend.
Thousands of holidaymakers, many of them children on school trips, faced delays of up to 18 hours as a combination of new border controls and bad weather on the busiest weekend of coach travel since Brexit overwhelmed Britain’s busiest port.
Coach traffic is expected to be around a third lower over the Easter weekend, but to try to avoid congestion Dover port authorities have asked ferry operators to spread coach bookings on the Good Friday peak across three days.
This will inevitably lead to some passengers having to delay departures and curtail holidays – and may disrupt onward bookings.
But while authorities hope to avoid a repeat of long waits at Dover in the short term, the government has announced its commitment to post-Brexit checks – after delaying for years – which could add to complications at the port in future.
Read more:
The details of new post-Brexit border checks
Brexit’s role in recent long waits
The post-Brexit requirement for all travellers to have their passports checked and stamped by French border officials was a key factor in last weekend’s delays, requiring every coach passenger to disembark.
The Port of Dover says it has been assured that the French border authorities, Police aux Frontieres (PAF), “are providing a full complement of officials to process outbound travellers despite lower coach volumes”.
The Port is also installing temporary facilities to cope with passengers in the event of long delays.
Car and foot passengers have also been advised to not arrive early for crossings in order to ease the pressure on the notoriously narrow and congested port area.
In a statement, the Port of Dover said: “All Port of Dover stakeholders are acutely aware that last weekend was a horrible situation for many…
