Operation Stack is an intriguing name, suggesting both scale and stealth. You imagine a giant community sculptural project, or the well-meant but fatalistically overwrought endeavours of a human pyramid. The latter is surprisingly close. But the structure comprises trucks, not humans, arranged as a snake rather than a pyramid.
Back-to-back boxes are braked for around 13 miles on the M20, while non-freight traffic bypasses them on the A20. This extreme form of traffic control was launched in 1987, and has been in play since Tuesday after French ferry workers went on strike, bringing cancelled crossings and chaos. Lorries at the front of the queue are given a ticket to continue their journey. Lorries trying to cheat by using the A20 are sent to the back with no ticket. Ouch.
The current standstill is the second time Operation Stack has been deployed this year. In January, after a lorry fire closed the Channel Tunnel, freight traffic was queued on the M20 for a week. As a form of crisis management, the Stack has its detractors. It requires a large police presence, with the Kent police and crime commissioner previously dismissing the system as “babysitting” lorry drivers. Clearly it’s a big enterprise, but Operation Stack seems a bit of a misnomer. It is really Operation Queue or Operation Lorry Park.
