After a weekend of disruption at the Eurotunnel, the holiday traffic jams are easing.
The Automobile Association (AA) motoring group says the time to reach the check-in desk at the Eurotunnel terminal in Folkestone is under two hours.
The news follows three days of disruptions at the Port of Dover and Folkestone. Over the weekend, holidaymakers from the UK trying to cross from Dover or Folkestone to France were stuck for several hours on the roads.
Traffic built up on the roads leading to the Eurotunnel after the M20 motorway was turned into a lorry park due to Operation Brock, the traffic management system designed to relieve congestion in case of cross-channel traffic problems.
With the motorway shut, car drivers were diverted to smaller roads which got jammed.
Around 6 pm BST on Sunday, the National Highways agency tweeted that the stretch of the M20 between junctions 11 and 12 had reopened to non-freight traffic but it remains closed between junctions 8 and 11.
Travelers reported waiting in traffic up to 21 hours to reach the ports and sleeping in cars on the road overnight. Volunteers helped manage the emergency by handing out food, water and other supplies to travelers.
Jack Cousens, the head of roads policy for the AA, said on Sunday that travelers were waiting for several hours in traffic before reaching the Eurotunnel, adding that Folkestone has turned into “the hotspot of holiday hell.”
We’ve been badly let down this morning by the French border.
Doug Bannister, Port of Dover chief executive
The Dover traffic chaos led to a war of words between British and French authorities. British authorities accused France of a lack of officials at the French border, where UK travelers are subject to stricter border checks since Britain left the European Union in 2020.
In a statement, port authorities said that the number of French border police “has been insufficient and has fallen far short of what is required to ensure a smooth first weekend of the peak summer getaway period.”
On the other hand, French authorities blamed Brexit for the additional checks.
