Dover ferry queues
 

There's been a lot about the Dover ferry queues in the news. Is this for car and lorries, not affecting foot passengers?

I actually like using the ferry as there no stress of going through security like an airport or Eurostar.

I don’t believe foot passengers are carrier any more. While I’d happily do it once more for nostalgia’s sake, Eurostar is a far more civilised experience.

I only checked P&O, but they certainly seem to take foot pax

https://www.poferries.com/en/routes/...foot-passenger

DFDS do not allow foot passengers nor do Eurotunnel so the only public transport options as a foot passenger for short Dover strait crossings are P&O ferries or Eurostar trains. Eurostar is fine if you are going to Lille or beyond but not very convenient if going to the Boulogne/Calais area. There used to be a small number of Eurostar services stopping at Calais-Fréthun but, afaik they no longer do and the nearest Eurostar station would be Lille.

The queues have predominantly affected coach passengers, although I think there were some general queues for all vehicles earlier in the weekend, but it was coaches that continued to be hit hard right through until today.

I am not sure exactly what has changed to cause the kerfuffle at Dover this time. The media appears to be reporting to be some change in procedures for coach passengers where they all have to individually all troop off the coach and present themselves to immigration and get stamped and then troop back onto their coach whereas this previously wasn't the case. But there does seem to be a degree of smoke and mirrors exactly what has really caused the kerfuffle this time.

Everyone has to be stamped in, so they all have to be seen by an immigration officer.

Also France had asked the UK authorities for extra space for its immigration facilities in Dover Port, because from later this year, everyone who isn't an EU citizen will have to have their fingerprints and picture taken when entering the EU. Straightforward at an airport, not so much when you're in a car, or a coach. The French would therefore like a larger facility to process travellers, and yes French immigration is in Dover (UK immigration is in Calais/Dunkirk).

Anyway, the UK refused, so France took back control and gave them a taste of their own medicine - it had been the UK that insisted on strict border checks at external borders when they were a member state.

Ferry delays because of bad weather didn't help.

I passed through Dover Port on Friday afternoon in my car. There were delayed ferries because of the weather though I was put on an earlier ferry as a result and left earlier than booked. The weather was rough but DFDS were coping better than I had expected. There were hardly any delays for cars at the port. The only problems were with trucks getting in the wrong lanes and blocking access to the port and to the check in kiosks. That was being handled by police/port staff.

As for immigration, there was no delays at the French border control and the British BF just waved us through unchecked (back to the good old days!). I did hear that there were 2 hour delays for coaches at the time we went through.

DFDS still allows cyclists to roll on their ships, £25 fee one way. It's not quite "walking" but close enough.

Ah yes, did that not become quite a thing during an episode of travel disruption (ash cloud?)? All foot pax tickets sold out / not on sale, so bike shops in Calais did a roaring trade.

Ha! Necessity is the mother of invention as they say. I'm booked on the Dunkirk service - I know, not Calais - this August bank holiday, looking forward to it.

I did the Dunkirk ferry with a bike a few years ago - nice service, but goodness me, the port is a long, industrial ride from the town! It also feels like a slightly odd route - you basically sail to Calais, then hug the coast the rest of the way!

I wonder if the crowding will mean the resurrection of other ports, like Ramsgate and Sheerness. Though I'm not holding my breath for the Ostend hydrofoil returning.

AFAIK, all cross-channel ferry companies allow bikes. It is easier as you can basically ride onto the ferry in the same way as motorised vehicles do. If you are lucky, they will let you off before all vehicles at the other end but usually it is the other way around: you have to wait until all vehicles are off (or at least most) before you can go. By contrast, Eurotunnel is something of a faff as they have to collect you in a van. This has always put me off and I have never used it when cycling.

For pedestrians, with the disappearance of train connections and foot-passenger-oriented pathways at some (all?) ferry ports, they now have to bring foot passengers onboard via a can/shuttle, which complicates logistics for them to some extent.

Yes long and so bleak. You almost feel like you could be in a Nordic noir series/film with a plot involving a murdered cyclist. :D I guess there is a certain beauty to this, in the same way as desolate industrial areas can have a certain beauty, But I prefer the closeness to town of Calais (even if Calais is no pretty picture either). I have never used the longest Brittany-bound routes but, of the shorter routes, the one I like best on the bike is the Newhaven-Dieppe one. Longer crossing compared to the Dover straight routes but the town of Dieppe is a stone's throw from the Ferry port and it also gives you access to a wonderful voie verte long distance cycle way. If cycling towards Beauvais or Paris or beyond, this is a great route to take.

isn’t one of the issues causing the delays the lack of both UK and French Border officials and facilities?

if so opening another port would simply divert resources away from Dover.

When the CEO of Dover port has been interviewed, he has said several times both last weekend and again today that the delays were not as a result of a lack of French Border police, and he even noted that last Saturday they bolstered the scheduled resources after there was some pressure experienced last Friday.

I am sure if he could divert some blame onto something he cannot directly control he would have done, but the French Border control were explicitly not blamed by Dover Ports.

Well, it's the closest port for my ultimate destination, Oudenaarde in Flanders.

I wish, but frankly I doubt it. The decision of only allowing travellers with passports has reduced the number of visitors and future ESTA-like things will just cut it further. This Guardian article is a bit cringeworthy, but the numbers show that traffic isn't growing back. I suppose that a lot of people who don't have passports (half the French and Germans) are going elsewhere. I'm trying my hardest to find ways to travel with my bike without having to faff with boxes and plane travel, but it really feels like we're going out of our way to make it impossible. On most trains in Europe, it's simply a case of getting on and going. Flixbus even has racks. From the UK, though, it's either the ferry or nothing...

There's some amazing infrastructure over in Belgium and some has also rubbed off France. I'll see how this trip goes, but next year I might try to do the Roubaix. Who knows, perhaps they'll also allow bikes back on the train!