Families heading to France from Dover are enduring a two-hour wait, while train services out of London have been hit by cancellations ahead of a weekend of route closures. The Port of Dover has updated its advice to passengers on Friday and over the bank holiday weekend.
Dover Delays
Drivers arriving at the port of Dover have been warned of two-hour waits as millions of others face bank holiday travel chaos. Authorities at Dover have alerted customers to a "120 minute processing time for tourist traffic in the buffer zone" before reaching French border control. Writing on social media, the Port of Dover said: "Thank you for your patience. Our teams are working hard to get everyone through border control and check-in as quickly as possible." The go-slow comes as Brits flying to Europe also fear lengthy waits due to new passport checks.
Doug Bannister, Port of Dover chief executive, said: "We’re looking at about 8,000 cars on Saturday, so that is going to be the busiest of the three days. Our busy time for cars tends to be about 5am till 1pm. If you’re arriving for a sailing during that period, we ask people not to arrive more than two hours before their sailing so that we can keep everybody flowing through."
Rail Disruption
It is not much better for those staying at home and enjoying the forecast heatwave, with temperatures over 30C predicted in some areas. National Rail warned that hot weather can cause overhead lines to expand and sag, rails to buckle, and pose a risk of track-side fires, adding that speed restrictions may be imposed. Tens of thousands of rail passengers suffered cancellations even before a weekend of disruption due to engineering work and strikes.
Operator LNER said northbound services between London King’s Cross and Peterborough were disrupted due to a fault with overhead power lines in the New Barnet area, with delays of up to 50 minutes expected. Southbound services between York and Doncaster were disrupted due to a signalling fault. The East Coast Main Line is expected to be one of the worst affected routes due to a closure for works in North Yorkshire, with a rail replacement bus service adding more than an hour and a half to a normal three-hour journey. This closure has impacted thousands of Middlesbrough fans travelling to London for the Championship play-off final against Hull City at Wembley.
Industrial action is also planned on London Northwestern Railway and West Midlands Railway on Friday and Saturday, with passengers advised to "only travel if necessary" as trains will run only on a small number of routes. The Transpennine route will also be affected, including a rail replacement service between Manchester Piccadilly and Huddersfield over the whole weekend, and between Huddersfield and Leeds, Dewsbury, and Wakefield Kirkgate on Sunday. Buses will replace trains on the Great Western main line between Newport and Bristol Parkway, while one train an hour will operate between south Wales and London via Gloucester from Saturday through to Monday June 8. Passengers using part of the Thameslink line in London and South Western Railway between Havant, Fareham, and Portsmouth Harbour will also face disruption.
Anit Chandarana, from Network Rail, said: "Bank holidays are still among the least busy times for us in terms of passengers, so it makes sense to plan these major improvements for those days. I know it can be frustrating to have to check before you travel, but this investment is about making everyday journeys better – improving reliability, reducing future disruption and helping the railway work better for passengers."
Road Congestion
So much rail disruption will inevitably mean even more people take to roads already predicted to be busy due to the weather and the start of the half-term school break. Adding to the risk of jams is the fact it is the final weekend of the Premier League season, with hundreds of thousands of fans travelling to cheer on their teams. The AA is forecasting Friday will be the busiest day, with around 23.4 million journeys taken, then 2.8 million on Saturday, and 22.4 million on both Sunday and bank holiday Monday.
