Easter travel chaos: Port of Dover declares critical incident as coaches wait SEVEN HOURS to board ferries

Queues of vehicle at the Port of Dover

The Port of Dover has declared a critical incident after coaches were held up for seven hours

PA
Georgina Cutler

By Georgina Cutler


Published: 01/04/2023

- 11:52

High levels of traffic have caused long delays at the start of the Easter holidays

The Port of Dover has declared a critical incident after coaches waiting to board ferries were held for around seven hours.

Operators P&O Ferries and DFDS Seaways reported delays to ferry and coach services due to the huge holiday rush on Friday evening.


It cited bad weather and hold-ups at French border controls as partly responsible for long waiting times and queues.

Just after 9pm on Friday, DFDS announced on Twitter that the wait time for coaches is around seven hours from arrival at the port.

Rows of cars and lorries in Dover

The port said high volumes of coach traffic was due to the Easter holidays

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P&O Ferries tweeted to say it was providing refreshments for coach passengers waiting at the cruise terminal and working on getting food and drink to passengers waiting in the buffer zone at the entrance to the port.

The port said high volumes of coach traffic was due to the Easter holidays.

A spokesperson said: “The Port of Dover is deeply frustrated by last night’s and this morning’s situation and particularly so on behalf of all the ferry operators’ coach passengers who have had to endure such a long wait at the port.

“Whilst freight and car traffic was processed steadily regardless of the additional challenging weather conditions and high seasonal volumes, coach traffic suffered significant delays due to lengthy French border processes and sheer volume.

“Despite considerable pre-planning with our ferry operators, border agency partners and the Kent resilience forum, and the success of similar plans for processing substantial numbers of coaches during the most recent half-term period, the additional coach bookings taken by ferry operators for Easter have impacted operations for the port."

The port said food and drink had been provided to coach passengers in the queues, adding: “We offer our sincere apologies for the prolonged delays that people have endured and continue to work with all of our partners to get all passengers on their way as quickly as possible.”

DFDS Seaways and P&O Ferries also announced delays adding that the hold-ups were partly because of bad weather.

A spokesperson for DFDS Seaways said: "The queues at Dover today have been as a result of bad weather causing delays to sailings, combined with high volumes of traffic, and particularly coach groups.

Queues of lorries on the A20

Lorries queueing on the A20 to get to the Port of Dover in Kent

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"DFDS is working to keep passengers up to date via its website and social media channels, and is transporting passengers on the next available sailing once they have checked in.

"It has also been working with coach operators to speed up the check-in process for coach passengers."

P&O Ferries Updates tweeted that the delay for coaches was due to "the time it is taking to process each vehicle at French border controls".

"We apologise for the wait times and have put on an extra sailing this evening to help clear the backlog," the operator added.

On Saturday morning, at 11.12am, DFDS said transit times from Stop 24 to the Port of Dover is around two to three hours, while the buffer zone wait time is two hours.

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