Major travel disruption for holidaymakers over Easter as Port of Dover limits Good Friday coach travel

Thousands of holidaymakersface major travel disruption over Easter as the Port of Dover is limiting coachtravel on Good Friday.

The Kent port said the move aims to avoid a repeat of the “horrible situation” last weekend when many coaches were delayed for several hours before boarding ferries.

It is expected that Good Friday will be the busiest day of the Easter weekend for coaches as travellers embark on cross-Channel bank holiday trips from the port.

To reduce the volume of coaches on that day, the port said ferry operators DFDS, Irish Ferries and P&O Ferries are “working with their coach customers to spread the travel” across the three-day period from Thursday 6 to Saturday 8 April. It comes after an “urgent review” by the port’s management with ferry operators and French border control authorities.

Coach sector trade association the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) previously said that limiting the number of coaches allowed to use the port would be “an unacceptable and backward step”.

In a bid to reduce congestion this weekend, the port said it has installed “additional temporary border control infrastructure” to process coaches. Other measures include French border control authorities providing a full complement of officials to process outbound travellers - despite coach volumes expected to be a third lower than a week ago - while drivers are being advised not to arrive early so as to “avoid unnecessary bottlenecks”.

In a statement, the port said: “All Port of Dover stakeholders are acutely aware that last weekend was a horrible situation for many travellers, including the elderly and schoolchildren.

“It is the top priority of all parties to ensure a better experience for travellers this weekend. These additional measures are intended to significantly improve traffic throughput and give travellers a better start to their holidays.”

Ferry operator DFDS issued an alert on Twitter which warned of a “busy weekend” at the port as holidaymakers embark on Easter getaways. It advised travellers to allow 120 minutes to complete border controls and check-in.

Brexit blamed for delays

Delays at the port have been blamed on French border officials carrying out extra checks and stamping UK passports following Brexit.

Downing Street acknowledged that “new processes” introduced following the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union contributed to last weekend’s disruption, while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said “of course Brexit has had an impact”.

The CPT has called for a series of measures to help cut congestion at Dover, including:

• More border staff to speed up passport checks
• More coach priority lanes on the approach to the port
• Encourage Irish Ferries and P&O Ferries to introduce a driver app, like the one used by DFDS, to cut processing times for coaches by enabling information to be sent in advance

Chief executive Graham Vidler said: “Coach is the most efficient and environmentally-friendly way of moving large numbers of people across the Channel. Coach passengers should be welcomed and prioritised, rather than being made to wait hours due to unacceptable delays.

“Maundy Thursday is typically one of the busiest days of the year for coaches, so a repeat of the recent delays must be avoided as we head into Easter weekend. This is why the Port of Dover needs to work with all parties to properly resource border control checks and the efficient embarkation of people and vehicles on to ferries.”

It is not clear whether another strike by French workers on Thursday (6 April) in the ongoing row over pension reforms will affect ferry passengers. In response to one passenger on Twitter, P&O Ferries wrote: “We’re planning to sail to our regular schedule at the moment, but we’re still advising for passengers to prepare for a wait just in case.”