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 it had decided to spread coach traffic across Thursday, Friday and Saturday was made after talks with ferry operators.

It will also put in a temporary marquee to help process coach passengers ahead of crossing the border.

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 Confederation of Passenger Transport, the trade body for coach and bus companies, welcomed the changes but said ferry firms needed to improve advance information.

It also called for the port to introduce more coach priority measures.

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The port said it was "acutely aware that last weekend was a horrible situation for many travellers, including the elderly and schoolchildren".

It said 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 government also warned of a possibility of delays over the break and said people should check with operators before travelling.

The port said all three ferry companies had been "working with their coach customers" to spread the volume of traffic.

The number of coaches travelling through the port is expected to be a third lower than last weekend.

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

The Port of Dover also said the facilities "for processing coach passengers will also be temporarily expanded via a marquee installed in addition to the existing coach hall for departing passengers".

DFDS said it was contacting coach and group operators to "amend bookings where possible".

"We will have additional staff available to assist passengers at the ports and we will have food and water for passengers on standby in case it is needed," it said.

But Christine Dixon director of Cranberry Coachways, which had five coaches caught up in last weekend's "absolute carnage", said operators could not easily amend bookings.

"Because that's been planned for so long, it's not like you can just rearrange something, so you've got to get on the ferry you've been actually booked on," she said.

Ms Dixon said she feared for her business because schools might be put off travelling by coach when planning future trips.

But she had received feedback from grateful parents because "we'd done everything we possibly could" to look after the children, which included ordering takeout pizza which was delivered to the waiting coaches.