Dover sets out emergency steps to avoid more post-Brexit travel chaos

The Port of Dover has unveiled emergency measures to avoid a repeat of recent “horrible” travel disruption over Easter, including limiting the number of coaches travelling on Friday.

The UK’s busiest port said on Wednesday that its “top priority” was to ensure a “better experience” over the Easter bank holiday weekend, after some coaches waited for as long as 14 hours to board ferries last Saturday and Sunday.

The tailbacks were primarily the result of delays at French customs caused by new post-Brexit border processes.

“All Port of Dover stakeholders are acutely aware that last weekend was a horrible situation for many travellers,” the port said.

In response, the port said that it had agreed with ferry operators to limit the number of coaches booked to travel on Friday, which is projected to be the peak travel day of the four-day weekend.

Some coaches will be moved from the busiest crossings to quieter sailings on Friday, while others will have to travel on a different day, according to one person familiar with the plan.

The person said both the port and ferry companies had discussed imposing a blanket cap on the number of coaches permitted to travel, as reported by the Financial Times, but decided against the “arbitrary” measure because each operator has different capacities on its vessels.

The port said it also planned to install temporary border infrastructure to offer greater capacity to process coaches, and that French border control had indicated they would provide “a full complement of officials” to inspect passports.

“These additional measures are intended to significantly improve traffic throughput and give travellers a better start to their holidays,” it said, adding that while Easter was expected to be very busy for car journeys, one-third fewer coaches were expected.

DFDS, a ferry operator, said it hoped “shorter processing times for coach passengers can be achieved”, adding: “We are doing all we can in collaboration with the port to reduce the pressure and bottlenecks at passport control.”

The post-Brexit requirement for French officials to inspect and stamp the passport of passengers entering the EU from the UK has put pressure on the border infrastructure at Dover.

Coach travellers must now disembark and be individually processed, meaning it takes longer to process a coachload of passengers than the equivalent number of car passengers who remain in their vehicles.

Graham Vidler, head of the Confederation of Passenger Transport, the coach industry trade association, welcomed the industry’s contingency plans for Easter but urged ferry operators to improve passenger information and Dover port to further prioritise coaches.

“We hope the measures . . . will improve things for all road users and we will be watching the situation carefully to ensure continental coach travel through Dover can continue to thrive,” he said.