Easter holidays cut short by 10-hour wait at Dover crossing
Families setting off for Easter breaks across the Channel lost up to a day from their trips due to chaotic delays at Dover over the weekend.
Despairing coach passengers said they were left stranded for up to 16 hours with no updates, with hundreds forced to spend Friday night in their seats after more than 20 vehicles were diverted to nearby lorry rest stops.
Despite scrambling extra overnight ferries, operators admitted coaches were still having to wait an average of 10 hours to board in the early hours on Sunday.
Port authorities blamed ‘lengthy French border processes and sheer volume’ for the delays, which forced them to declare a critical incident.
Essex-based environmental campaigner Rosie Pearson, 50, was supposed to arrive in the French alps with her husband and two teenagers at 2.15pm on Saturday – but their bus wasn’t expected to make it until 6am on Sunday.
She said: ‘The whole thing was a shambles… Not a single bit of communication.
‘It was carnage. The worst thing was that no-one told us anything for the whole 16 hours, literally nothing.
‘(We are) very tired but people are resigned now and relieved to be en route. Shocking that something this chaotic can happen.
‘My children’s school has a ski trip this week (they are not on it, with us instead) and their bus was turned away last night – they had to sleep at a service station and come back this morning.’
Coach driver Ken told Sky News: ‘By the time we reached the port, we joined the queue and seven hours later, we’ve moved about three inches.
‘The port was teeming with children getting off the coaches to go to the toilet. If you went into the toilet area it was devastating, it was full of bodies. It was real harrowing.’
P&O Ferries, one of two main operators running services between Dover and Calais, said departures would start to leave on time around midday on Sunday.
But the other operator, DFDS, said coaches were still having to wait around 6 hours to pass through border controls and check-in.
People travelling in cars were said to be experiencing shorter delays of up to 90 minutes.
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