Some cross-Channel ferry services have resumed a normal service between Dover and Calais after five days of disruption caused by a strike by French ferry workers, but police have warned that a queue of thousands of lorries waiting to make the crossing will be slow to clear.
Some of the restrictions under Operation Stack, a police scheme to limit disruption, were lifted after P&O ferries restarted regular crossings overnight. But parts of the M20, the motorway to Dover, remained closed and Kent police warned of “residual delays” that were expected to disrupt traffic until Monday.
Richard Burnett, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, said the queue would clear slowly because of the limited capacity of the ferries.
“Yesterday there were 3,000 trucks parked on the M20. We would anticipate that today that will reduce to about 2,000,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Burnett said the impact on the road freight industry had been “catastrophic”. He added: “For the industry I don’t think we have experienced anything like this before. It is unprecedented.”
The disruption began on Monday when MyFerryLink workers staged a strike in protest at expected job cuts. The Channel tunnel reopened on Tuesday afternoon after a three-hour shutdown.
At the peak of the disruption a record 3,400 vehicles were stuck on the M20 after police lined vehicles up two abreast along 33 miles of the motorway.
On Friday P&O said it expected to make its usual 25 ferry crossings.
P&O Ferries is back to business as usual.We are already moving back to our full schedule of 25 sailings a day between Dover and Calais 3/4
— P&O Ferries Freight (@POFerriesFR8) July 3, 2015
DFDS ferries between Dover and Calais were still suspended but were sailing between Dover and Dunkirk with delays of around 90 minutes.
Dover-Calais-Dover: services are currently suspended due to industrial action at the Port of Calais. Proceed to Dunkirk to be transferred
— DFDS Seaways Updates (@DFDSUKUpdates) July 3, 2015
On Thursday, the home secretary, Theresa May, and her French counterpart, Bernard Cazeneuve, jointly promised to do more to end the chaos connected to strikes at Calais.
They said they would rush through measures to prevent access to the Channel tunnel, which striking French MyFerryLink staff have blocked several times.
MPs in Kent are seeking an urgent meeting with the transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, about severe disruption on the county’s roads.
Helen Grant, the MP for Maidstone, said they wanted a nationwide response. “We need a national procedure in place to prevent the confluence of lorries from all over the country creating a logjam in Kent every time there is disruption to Channel crossings,” she said. “This is a national problem, not a Kent problem, but it is Kent that takes it on the chin every time.”
