The Confederation of Passenger Transport says it will be keeping a close eye on how the port of Dover performs following the delays around Easter
In the run up to the start of the bank holiday weekend and school half term holidays on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 May, the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) said it would be closely monitoring the arrangements in place at the Port of Dover following the well-publicised delays around Easter.
The Port of Dover assured the CPT there will be no repeat of the scenes at Easter, when coaches were heavily delayed with very limited access to information or welfare facilities.
The CPT said it understood that there would be a minimum of five French border control staff available at any time to carry out coach passenger passport checks, and up to seven provided the construction of a new shelter for the French officials was completed on time. A dedicated parking and ferry check-in muster point, with adequate facilities, was also set to be provided.
CPT CEO Graham Vidler said in the lead up to the holiday weekend: “Coach travel is one of the greenest and most sustainable forms of transporting people in large numbers. We are pleased the Port of Dover has recognised this by responding to CPT’s calls for a coach contingency plan during peak
getaway periods, so all modes of transport can pass freely through this important gateway. On behalf of our coach operator members, we will be keeping a watchful eye on how vehicles are processed over the bank holiday weekend, ready to intervene and ensure action in case of difficulties.”
The CPT says it is encouraged that the Port of Dover is addressing two thirds of its three-point plan of more border control staff to speed up passport checks and extra coach priority lanes. Its call for the greater use of technology has yet to be completed; Irish Ferries and P&O have yet to follow DFDS’ example of using passenger check-in apps to speed up the boarding of passengers and vehicles.
Port of Dover
Meanwhile, the Port of Dover’s Chief Executive Doug Bannister told the BBC it had done everything possible to prevent travel delays. Following the delays at Easter, he said: “Certainly there was some trepidation in the market, but the volumes came back. It wasn’t a great experience, particularly for people that had saved up to travel abroad, or the school groups of kids going across maybe on their first trip, it was not good.”
“We created a new processing centre in the western part of the port to better sequence the traffic coming into the port and to the advanced passenger information checks,” he told the BBC, “and we’ve worked with all of our port partners, but specifically Police aux Frontières, to ensure that the resource levels are what we require, to make certain that we can maintain the flow rates. And they responded very well.”
Over the weekend, some delays of up to three hours were reported following what the port said was an IT issue, along with queues of HGVs on the approach to Dover, though disruption was significantly less than that seen during the Easter break.
