‘Pull your finger out Calais!’ Holidaymakers returning to the UK left fuming as they face two-hour queues at French ferry port – after SIX hour delays on Saturday
- Travellers were forced again today to wait multiple hours for ferries at Calais
- On Saturday they faced waiting times of up to six hours to catch the ferries
- P&O Ferries and DFDS have apologised for the severe delays for families
- P&O said to expect waiting times of up to 120 minutes at UK border controls
Holidaymakers returning from Calais to the UK today were frustrated at two-hour waits for ferries – after there were six hour delays at the port yesterday.
An update from P&O Ferries on Twitter this evening told passengers to expect waiting times of between 90 and 120 minutes at UK border controls and to arrive at check-in at least 90 minutes before departure.
But some passengers claimed they were missing their ferries despite arriving before the 90 minutes advertised.
The delays appeared to be down to long waits at the UK Border control, taking up to three minutes for individual checks.
The delays at the French ferry port yesterday forced DFDS and P&O Ferries to issue an apology to families.
A video taken by Marianna Kozikova captured drivers’ frustration as they hooted their horns while waiting for multiple hours at the ferry port.
Long delays of multiple hours continued for travellers at Calais today. A video taken by Marianna Kozikova captured drivers’ frustration as they hooted their horns while locked in a standstill for multiple hours at the ferry port
Marianna said: ‘The queue was so so long and I couldn’t see the end of it’. She added the waits took place in 29C heat and there weren’t any facilities nearby
Marianna, 38, said she was returning from a one-night stay in Belgium with her partner and waited over three hours to catch her crossing to Dover.
She added that there were no facilities nearby in the 29C heat – made worse by emissions from the big lorries – meaning those queueing couldn’t access toilets or water to drink.
She told MailOnline: ‘People were getting very frustrated. There was a lot of tooting.
‘The queue was so so long and I couldn’t see the end of it.’
Hamail Paracha also took a video of the queues for the ferries. Yesterday people waited up to six hours to catch their ferries
She said getting through French security was ‘very quick’ but delays at the UK border control were extensive.
Scott Wright, who was also frustrated at the queues, tweeted: ‘Pull your flipping finger out Calais.
‘Been stuck in a queue for over an hour and haven’t moved. Shambles.’
Ferries appeared to be departing on time but Marianna said that, despite her three hour wait, her crossing looked almost empty once it was ready to depart
Ferries appeared to be departing on time but Marianna said that, despite her three hour wait, her crossing looked almost empty once it was ready to depart.
BBC journalist Tom Hourigan was also caught in the ‘nightmare set of queues’ this evening, which caused him to miss his scheduled ferry.
He tweeted that he believed the problem was down to seven out of 18 available UK Border Force booths being shut – and individual checks taking up to three minutes.
People forced to wait in the queues tweeted that the situation was a ‘shambles’.
Those waiting at Calais took to Twitter to express their frustration at the ‘shambles’ at the ferry port
On Saturday many passengers missed their sailing and P&O routed extra ferries for disgruntled travellers after they queued into the evening.
Craig Price, from Essex, told the BBC he spent five hours at Calais Saturday having travelled through Italy and France.
He said: ‘We arrived at 3pm and got through at 8pm… The design of the port does not seem able to cope with the need for French and UK border control,’ he said.
Mr Price added that only two-thirds of UK border control booths were manned.
The BBC said passenger Josh Williams also endured a five-hour wait on Saturday to board a ferry back to the UK and shared a photo of countless cars with families queuing to get back with their children before the new school year next week.
The Port of Calais suffered severe delays are border and check-in control with some families missing their sailing
Families can be seen waiting outside their cars on Saturday as their cars sat in six-hour long queues
Disgruntled passenger John Williams shared a photo of his five-hour wait at Calais on Saturday
At around 6pm on Saturday DFDS warned on social media that there were queues of up to six hours from Calais and early this morning they asked travellers to allow at least two hours to complete border and check-in control.
A DFDS spokesperson told the BBC: ‘Calais was affected by ‘the perfect storm’ of summer volumes in combination with post-Brexit border checks, causing six hours of queuing.’
Jo Van Herwegen, from Surrey, said she was lucky to have water while she waited for five hours in the heat with her two children.
She told BBC news: ‘It was little to do with the amount of people but with the poor layout and no traffic control.’
She said they had been travelling to the UK from Belgium and got to the port early, however after an hour they had only moved two cars forward in the car.
P&O Ferries said yesterday on social media: ‘We have an additional sailing to this evening to help get everyone across to Dover. Once you are through the queues you will be on the next crossing to Dover.
‘We sincerely apologise for the wait times. These are due to queues at border control.’
One twitter user posted a video and said: ‘Welcome to Calais port and welcome to Brexit.’
Another said: ‘Had that yesterday, French check took 2 minutes because they had loads of lanes open, then we get to the UK part and its this!’
Congestion at Calais was also heavy last week.
One twitter user said: ‘Our kids sat in it for damn near 3 hours last week. No toilet facilities in the queue. Cheers, leavers. Well done.’
Another tweeted: ‘Wednesday 2 hours delay.’
There were similar queuing times in Calais on August 24, due to heavy traffic arriving from the Eurotunnel after passengers has to leave their cars and exit through an emergency service tunnel when the trains alarms were activated.
A spokesman for Le Shuttle said at the time: ‘The Shuttle was brought to a controlled stop and inspected. As a precautionary measure, for their safety and comfort, we transferred the passengers on-board to another shuttle, via the service tunnel [which is there for exactly that purpose].
‘We brought them to the passenger terminal building, where food and drinks were available.’
Twitter users took to the platform to express their frustration with the long wait times at the Port of Calais
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