London, Jul 24 (EFE) .- The British authorities expect this Sunday a third consecutive day of large traffic jams around the steps to cross the English Channel, where thousands of vehicles wait to travel to France.
The delays not only affect the port of Dover, but also the Folkestone terminal, which is accessed by Eurotunnel users who cross the channel by train instead of by ship.
“You may experience a longer than normal ride today. We are doing everything we can to get it to France as quickly as possible. If you are late for your reservation, we will put you on the next service,” Eurotunnel said in a message on Twitter.
The company anticipates waits of an hour and a half to check-in and half an hour to go through border checkpoints, but that’s not counting the collapses suffered by the roads leading to the facility.
Eurotunnel expects around 7,000 cars to cross by train from Folkestone today, compared to 8,500 on Saturday.
Despite everything, the shipping company P&O, the main operator in Dover, reported through its social networks that at 06:00 local time (05:00 GMT) the queues at its terminal to reach border controls did not exceed 15 minutes.
The United Kingdom and France have exchanged accusations these days regarding the reason for these delays, which for the British is due to an insufficient number of border policemen and for the French due to the consequences of Brexit and poor British planning.
In a statement late on Saturday, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she had spoken to her French counterpart, Catherine Colonna, to convey her “frustration” at the situation and to protest that “the French had not placed enough people on the border.”
Around the same time, Colona revealed on Twitter that he had had a “good conversation” with Truss, but recalled that “facilities in Dover need to be improved.”
Those responsible for the port of Dover have admitted that, despite the fact that the biggest problem was caused by the lack of French policemen at passport control on Friday, the consequences of Brexit imply longer waits to cross the border and they have foreseen that the problem will persist during the summer.
