Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 46 total)
  • Operation Stack and the Channel Tunnel
  • Andy_K
    Full Member

    We are travelling down to the alps in two weeks, lunchtime crossing on the tunnel, and wondering whats the best way to approach the travel with all the recent troubles down there.

    Current itinerary is Thurs – Cumbria to Basingstoke, then maybe get up v. early friday to get to the tunnel for 8/9am and wait it out?

    On the way back we are crossing on a sunday morning.

    Recent experiences welcome!

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    I’m interested too, we’re due to go through in 3 or 4 weeks and my wife’s getting quite anxious about delays on UK side plus migrant activity on French one.

    nickjb
    Free Member

    We planned for delays. Got there an hour early and was put straight on the next tunnel, never seen the terminal so empty. Some people coming to same place as us got there a few hours later and had a 3 hour delay. We did A2, M2, country lanes. A little bit busy on the m20 but quiet elsewhere. This was last Friday afternoon. Took about 1 hour longer than if there was no traffic and most if that was down to Friday traffic on the m25 and taking the country lanes.

    Going to Basingstoke for a reason? I’d go round the right side of London if not.

    We saw a load of migrants huddled under a bridge near the French terminal. No ‘activity’ as such.

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    ads678
    Full Member

    I think eurotunnel have been saying, get there on time not early and you should be fine. Obviously if you’re late then you might be waiting a while!!

    I think the actual operation stack thing is for HGV’s to park and wait on the M20. Cars go straight to the tunnel although there may be delays these won’t be like the HGV delays.

    My crossing next week is at 10:20pm so I’m hoping it’ll be fine!!

    Sui
    Free Member

    I’ve got a 06:20 crossing next Thursday – i’m not convinced this will all be sorted, so our wakey wakey time is going to be a tad earlier than expected (missus and kids will love it). Another death last night, and he BBC reports of the incursions are something like out of an apocalypse / zombie movie.

    Andy_K
    Full Member

    We are staying with friends in Amazingstoke, so just just seeing them and breaking up the journey.

    dknwhy
    Full Member

    I’m in Saalbach-Hinterglemm now. Drove over last Friday (7.10am crossing) . Followed the detours for operation stack which added 20 minutes to the journey from London.
    30 minute delayed crossing.
    Most of the issues are for freight vehicles.

    theotherjonv
    Full Member

    I went from Guildford to Canterbury for a meeting yesterday, and the M20 was closed at J8 with only trucks being allowed on to stack. At lunchtime when i went down that was no issue (the closures were just in place and I got off at J7 anyway) but by the time i returned, the traffic jam on the Folkestone bound side went way back almost as far as the M26.

    There are diversions for non-freight traffic, and of course what it’ll be like next week might be totally different to yesterday / today, but if it was me right now I’d be trying to get there avoiding the M20 completely, eg: M2 / A2 or Hastings/Rye/coast road

    legend
    Free Member

    Andy_K – Member

    We are staying with friends in Amazingstoke, so just just seeing them and breaking up the journey.

    Staying somewhere a bit closer to Dover/Tunnel would be better than the long (possibly uncertain) drive across from Basing-grad?

    toppers3933
    Free Member

    There was a lady on the news last week having a mellow dramatic melt down over it. They been delayed by a couple of hours and were probably going to have to wait a couple more to get on a ferry. ‘This has totally destroyed our holiday. We were going for two weeks in the south of France but we are thinking we might as well just go home and forget it.’ Most of what I’ve heard is that unless you’re driving anything bigger than a 7.5t lorry you’ll not have too much trouble if you allow plenty of time to do the last part of the journey.

    damitamit
    Free Member

    I’m driving to France in a couple of weeks and was thinking about this. Haven’t booked anything yet…

    Should i book the chunnel or get a ferry?

    hammyuk
    Free Member

    From Basingstoke – I’d drop down the M3, M27, A27 and run across past Brighton and Eastbourne popping on right at the bottom for the chunnel.
    OR run the A272 from J9 all the way to the Chunnel.
    Bet you never knew there is a huge animal park on that route 😉

    legend
    Free Member

    Should i book the chunnel or get a ferry?

    Makes no difference, just go for whatever you fancy as there’s no way to tell which is going to be affected more.

    For the record, we’re on a very early ferry next week, then returning by train

    northernmatt
    Full Member

    I’m going down on Friday so if I remember I’ll let you all know what it was like but from following the Le Shuttle twitter it seems it changes hourly. We are booked in for a 9:20pm crossing and have planned for there being a fair bit of traffic. There has been a few people saying go M2/A2/B2068 to M20 and it’ll get you there quicker.

    allthegear
    Free Member

    I’m on at 5pm Saturday. Motorbike, though, so have it a little easier.

    Rachel

    freeagent
    Free Member

    have a 9am channel tunnel crossing on 15-Aug, I only live in Bromley so normally get to the tunnel in just over an hour down the M20.

    Will be leaving an hour earlier and going via the M2/A2 if it is still like this..

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    Freight Transport Association are calling for the British army to be deployed in Calais.

    I can’t see the French readily agreeing to that…

    Tom_W1987
    Free Member

    Freight Transport Association are calling for the British army to be deployed in Calais.

    I can’t see the French readily agreeing to that…

    It’s all very Daily Mail isn’t it – I bet Richard Littlejohn is dreaming of some modern Rorke’s Drift.

    Still, killing a few Frenchies would be good for British morale and Camerons popularity. Full scale amphibious assault of Calais anyone?

    xc-steve
    Free Member

    When we crossed about a month ago when this was first hitting the press we arrived at the terminal french side missing our earlier train hoping to get on the next one they delayed us by 5 hours claiming all the trains were full. We awoke the next morning to find that no trains had gone as they were all cancelled and conveniently the next train leaving was ours. The people working on the terminal didn’t give any clues as to what was happening until we got on the train spoke to the British workers on the train who said it’s been happening quite frequently people trying to run through the tunnel. So I’m assuming this has only been the case just the press are only just starting to pick up on it. Love how last night BBC reported 2000 people ‘running through the tunnel’ to now this morning changing that figure to 1500 tried to ‘enter the terminal’…

    It’s almost like there’s a big EU vote on the cards in the not so distant future…

    legend
    Free Member

    It’s almost like there’s a big EU vote on the cards in the not so distant future…

    They’ll still be trying to get through even if one side of the tunnel is no longer in Europe

    PePPeR
    Full Member

    I came back on the ferry last night, the queues are for the freight, but the amount that of people trying to get through on the sides of the road at the tunnel was huge.

    I’d booked by DFDS and got to Calais to find their ferry was delayed, so they sent me upto Dunkirk and I got on an earlier ferry than I was supposed too.

    If I wanted easiness I’d go Dunkirk and of course down the M2 to make it simples.

    cchris2lou
    Full Member

    you can have Calais .

    we have the tunnel booked for next week , hopefully should be a bit quieter by then .

    according to french news , CRS have been sent to protect tunnel and ferry .

    sheeps
    Full Member

    Feeling quite smug about booking Portsmouth – Caen – little difference in travel time from up north (M40/A34 etc. rather than M1/M25/M20). Granted the ferry crossing is looooong with 3 small kids, and if you want to go east is not much use but still, there were no delays on Monday*

    *Jinxed myself now, and the crossing back is going to be poop isn’t it?!

    gearfreak
    Free Member

    Booked Pool – Cherbourg, return Caen – Portsmouth to avoid any potential problems. Granted a couple of hundred more expensive, but easier to get to from S Wales and a much nicer part of France to arrive at/depart from.

    nedrapier
    Full Member

    We swapped to Newhaven – Dieppe when we went over earlier this month.

    br
    Free Member

    Should i book the chunnel or get a ferry?

    I’d book somewhere other than Dover/Folkstone-Calais to travel from myself, Harwich or Portsmouth maybe?

    Milkie
    Free Member

    I’m hoping everyone else is booking different ports/terminals and Calais will be a breeze on the 22nd August.. I’m imagining coming home around the 4th September will be absolute manic with all the families driving like maniacs to the terminals. 😕

    atlaz
    Free Member

    90 to 120 min delays today depending which side you’re going from

    db
    Full Member

    It’s ok troops are deploying now in Calais…
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ujpA3WwN5c

    (fast forward to 1:25)

    😀

    rondo101
    Free Member

    We had a 5pm Chunnel booked last Friday. Left Bristol at 10.30, motorway traffic was as bad as expected for school hols, but traffic for the crossing got really bad about 4 miles into the A20 diversion from jct 8 of the M20. We used google maps to find a way through the lanes to cut round Ashford and easily cut 90 mins off our journey from what people were saying in Twitter. Arrived at the quietest Chunnel terminal I’ve ever seen around 4pm and were put on the next available train, slightly earlier than our intended one. According to the news, those arriving around an hour after us got stuck in serious delays. Returning in a little over a week, considering a ferry to Poole if this persists.

    milky1980
    Free Member

    I’m crossing at 9pm Saturday, hopefully that should miss the major traffic. My usual plan is to get close to the tunnel about an hour early then grab a Maccy D’s at Ashford, fuel up at Tesco’s then head to the terminal. Guessing it’s pot luck on whether I can use that route this year. It just seems to change too quickly to plan for anything other than get close then see how it goes.

    onehundredthidiot
    Full Member

    We’re heading to blighty tomorrow, but stack was running when we came out, not helped by the chunnel terminal change. Basically we drove past all the lorries, as per the instructions, and we’re straight in at junction 11. No delays.

    Hoping its the same at 0700 tomorrow.

    onehundredthidiot
    Full Member

    No delays on this side apparently.

    wallop
    Full Member

    I would recommend fuelling up in France instead of Kent.

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    My mates went home yesterday and the return trip was fairly uneventful although they did see 30 miles 😯 of lorries on the UK side. At the moment the big delays are for lorries. I’ve been through a few times in the last month or so and the numbers of migrants has been growing steadily, I fear it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Allow plenty of extra time, eg at least a few hours and take food and water so you are self sufficient. It will probably remain more difficult to get to France than to get back

    FWIW we need to get back in a week and if situation doesn’t visibly improve we’ll either take a ferry (Caen-Portsmouth) or we’ll fly. Easy for us as we can leave car in Paris

    BoardinBob
    Full Member

    fuel up at Tesco’

    Don’t know if petrol is the same, but I’m driving a diesel and it was <£1 a litre in France. Well worth waiting until your on the other side to fill up. Thanks Greece.

    i_like_food
    Full Member

    We caught a 4pm train on Friday and were diverted via m2 as m20 was closed. Took about an extra 20 min, but that was eclisped by rubbish roadworks elsewhere on our route. Once we finally got to the terminal we basically drove straight onto a train. As others have said the terminal was like a ghost town. Now in Les arcs shredding the ‘knar (or something like that).

    Slightly off topic but if you have smalls (children not underwear) then we had an epiphany on the journey, audio books and headphones. Praise be to the God of narrators… Without the “are we nearly there yet” cries the van was almost too quiet.

    ski99
    Full Member

    @Milky1980
    I wouldn’t get off the M20 unless I absolutely had to.

    We left a couple of weeks ago, and camped at a pub 1 junction North of the Tunnel junction. Stack re-started overnight, and the trucks totally blocked the slip-road back onto the M20. After 5 minutes pondering and watching cars trying to drive between the trucks into the fast moving middle lane totally blind, we reversed up the slip-road, drove North for a junction, and then headed South again.

    Coming back Monday night the Calais terminal was empty apart from a strong presence of the Gendarm’s, and there were no delays.

    If you’re early for your train, don’t go into CiteEurope though. The sheer number of migrants wandering around the carparks looked fairly intimidating!

    Oh, and stay in outside lane as soon as you reach the parked trucks on the M20. You wouldn’t believe how many cars looked like they’d been parked there all night.

    rondo101
    Free Member

    Ski99: the M20 isn’t open to non-HGV traffic past jct 8, or at least that was the case last Friday. All traffic is routed off the m’way, with police at the slip road to get back on allowing only HGVs through.

    cchris2lou
    Full Member

    M20 still shut between jct 8 and 11 tonight .

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 46 total)

The topic ‘Operation Stack and the Channel Tunnel’ is closed to new replies.