EU border chaos feared at Dover crossing as busiest summer weekend looms | Road transport
The start of the busy summer season will draw millions of motorists onto Britain’s roads amid fears of traffic chaos, as the port of Dover faces its biggest test yet in terms of new EU border controls.
The semi-functioning entry-exit system (EES) is known to have helped boost British domestic holidays to the highest levels since Covid halted international travel, alongside fears about heatwaves and flights after the war in Iran.
Automotive associations expect the busiest summer weekend for domestic leisure travel to begin this Friday.
The port of Dover is bracing for long queues as thousands of holidaymakers join lorries on Britain’s main Channel ferry crossing from 6am.
French border police in Dover will manually register non-EU travelers in the EES. A new £40 million automated facility built to speed up passage through passengers is unable to operate due to software problems with the technology in France.
While the French police aux frontières (PAF) will not be able to carry out the biometric registration (photographing and fingerprinting) required by the EES, the port fears that the additional time required to create a dossier for each visitor could still lead to long queues at the border.
About 7,500 cars are expected to travel to France in Dover on Friday, and another 10,000 on Saturday, when the busy summer season begins.
The port appealed to holidaymakers to use only main roads when coming to the port and to arrive no more than two hours before their booked trip.
Eurotunnel, the operator of LeShuttle, which carries vehicles through the Channel tunnel, said that it does not expect any delays as summer traffic increases. As in Dover, border police will not record vehicle passengers’ biometric information for EES this summer. Eurotunnel has also spent millions of pounds on automated processing kiosks that have yet to be put into service.
Elsewhere, the RAC and Inrix expect the worst of traffic on Friday to be on parts of the M25 motorway around Greater London that connects to the M3 in the south-west, as more than 14 million motorists make dodges this weekend.
With most schools in England and Wales closing for summer this weekend, most holiday travel will take place on Saturday as part of the biggest domestic getaway since 2022, the RAC said.
Spokesperson Harriet Hernando said: “Britain’s glorious summer holidays are about to get off to a flying start and many people are opting to stay in the UK rather than travel abroad. This could be due to people being more confident in the weather, as well as concerns about canceled flights, higher airfares and delays at the EU border, which is no fun with a family in tow.”
But he warned that the June heatwave had caused a spike in breakdowns and urged drivers to be prepared for what the RAC called a “Saturday summer scramble”, adding: “People should be prepared for delays and potentially being stuck in congestion in very hot weather.”
Meanwhile, the AA said its surveys showed around one in five motorists will take a holiday journey of 100 miles or more next week, making it its busiest week for road trips and more potential could be drawn to the coast if the warm weather persists.
London Heathrow Airport has said this weekend will see the start of its busiest summer season, with Friday likely to be the busiest day. Travel charity Abta expects Britons’ real escape abroad to take place next weekend.
Passengers flying to the Schengen area of the 29 EU countries will complete EES formalities at the airport upon landing and take-off.
Europe’s largest carrier Ryanair this week warned again that UK passengers could be a “testing ground for incomplete border infrastructure” and told customers to be prepared for possible long queues. It identified a number of popular holiday airports such as Lisbon, Tenerife South, Alicante, Malaga and Milan Bergamo as “recurring hotspots” for EES-related delays.
