Dover to stagger coaches to avoid Easter delays

Coaches due to leave Dover on Good Friday will be staggered over three days in a bid to avoid long delays.

The Port of Dover said a decision to spread the volume across Thursday, Friday and Saturday was made after talks with ferry operators.

It also said "temporary border control infrastructure" would be installed.

The Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) welcomed the move but said ferry firms also needed to improve advance information for travellers.

The Port of Dover declared a critical incident last Friday, after long queues of traffic trying to board ferries built up.

Some coach passengers ended up waiting for more than 12 hours.

The port said it was "acutely aware that last weekend was a horrible situation for many travellers, including the elderly and schoolchildren", and that making sure things were better this weekend was a priority.

Good Friday is expected to be the busiest day of the upcoming Easter weekend with sailings by DFDS, Irish Ferries and P&O Ferries.

The port said all three companies had been "working with their coach customers" to spread the volume of traffic, which was due to be one third lower than last weekend.

Despite this, French border police are expected to provide a full compliment of staff.

The port has advised coach and car drivers not to arrive too early to avoid adding to queues and creating bottlenecks.

The CPT, a trade body for coach and bus companies, said: "While the traffic this weekend through the port will be smoothed out with no limits on vehicles, coach operators will work with the ferry companies to adjust sailing times where that is possible.

"We hope the measures put in place at Dover will improve things for all road users", it said.