Christmas getaway disruption was continuing on Friday with long queues for cross-Channel journeys, motorway closures and train cancellations on one of the busiest days of the year for travel.
In the late afternoon the Port of Dover in Kent said it was taking about 60 minutes to process cars before French border controls.
There is currently a 60-minute wait time ahead of French border controls as we help passengers get away for Christmas. Please check with your chosen ferry operator for further travel updates: @POferriesupdate@DFDSUKUpdates @Irish_Ferries
— Port of Dover Travel (@PoD_travelnews) December 22, 2023
The wait earlier in the day was 90 minutes because of a surge in demand for ferries after the Channel tunnel rail link was closed on Thursday due to unscheduled industrial action by French workers.
Eurostar, which operates passenger services to and from London St Pancras, was operating two extra services a day between London and Paris up to and including Christmas Eve to help people whose trains were cancelled on Thursday.
The vehicle-carrying train service Eurotunnel was running its usual timetable but was only accepting customers who have pre-booked.
On the roads, the M20 motorway in Kent remained closed in the coast bound direction between junctions 8 and 9 because of Operation Brock, which involves organising a queue for freight traffic during disruption to cross-Channel services.
National Highways said this was causing 45-minute delays, with tourist traffic diverted to use local roads.
It added that a movable concrete barrier – installed at a cost of millions of pounds – has not been used to create a contraflow system to keep the motorway open in both directions because putting it in position involved closing the road overnight. Operation Brock was expected to be lifted on Saturday morning at the latest.
The RAC said this week it expected 3.2m car journeys to visit family and friends on Friday, but warned that it could be very busy as people share roads with commuters and commercial traffic before the weekend. It warned drivers to wait until after 6pm before setting off to avoid the worst of the traffic.
The busiest day of traffic is expected on Saturday, when the RAC advised travellers to set off as early as possible.
The strikes by French Eurotunnel workers added to disruption around the UK caused by Storm Pia, which blew down trees on railways around Britain. The storm was not strong enough to warrant a name in the UK, but had received one from Danish authorities.
Weather forecasters have also warned of more heavy winds to come on Christmas Eve, with Scotland and north and central England expected to face gusts on Sunday as high as 70mph.
Rod Dennis, an RAC spokesperson, said: “With this latest weather warning affecting a large area of Scotland and parts of northern England, there is the chance travellers’ last-minute getaway trips could be disrupted.”
The weather-related closures on Thursday included the east coast mainline between London and Manchester. However, the line was reopened and running as normal the next day.
The Met Office on Friday morning had removed weather warnings from most of the UK, although disruption to train services from Edinburgh to Inverness and north of Inverness was still expected. Rail replacement buses were running because of high winds from the remnants of the storm as it moves eastwards towards Europe.
Trains near Birmingham and Norwich were also disrupted by a fallen tree and flooding from the storm respectively.
Separately on Friday, the union representing workers on the London Underground raised the prospect of days of strike action in January. The RMT said its members would be taking “rolling strike action in the new year” after winning the backing of 90% of voting members.
It said different groups of workers would be taking action on every day between 5 and 12 January, except for 11 January. The RMT said that an offer of a below-inflation 5% pay increase from Transport for London was unacceptable compared with a 11% pay rise for the body’s commissioner.
