Dover declares critical incident with heavy traffic causing severe delays at port

The Port of Dover has declared a critical incident as high levels of traffic caused coach passengers to experience lengthy delays.

It comes as operators P&O Ferries and DFDS Seaways also reported delays to ferry and coach services, citing bad weather and hold-ups at French border controls as partly responsible for waits and queues.

DFDS announced on Twitter just after 9pm that the wait time for coaches is approximately seven hours from arrival at the port.

P&O Ferries tweeted that it was providing refreshments to coach passengers waiting at the cruise terminal and working on getting food and drink to passengers waiting in the buffer zone at the entrance to the port.

The port said high volumes of coach traffic were due to the Easter holidays.

A spokesperson said: “The Port of Dover can confirm that a critical incident is under way as the port is currently experiencing high volumes of coach traffic due to the Easter holidays.

“Our present high volumes, combined with extended processing at border controls, has resulted in lengthy delays for coach passengers.

“The port, ferry operators and other partners are working hard to resolve the current issue.”