Bikes and Channel Tunnel problems

[tomkil]

Off to France next week and just wondering if anyone knows whether the delays are impacting on bikes as much as they are on cars and lorries.

[dibblecorse]

The delays will impact all transport, if Stack is still in place you'll get taken off the M20 at J8 and then allowed to rejoin later on.

Basically the process is as follows.

All traffic is taken off the M20 at J8
The heavy freight vehicles are then issued a numbered ticket and put back on the M20 to join the Stack.
Everything else is then put onto the A20 and will proceed south on that until allowed to rejoin, which depends on which junctions are closed for Stack, a the moment its closed J8 to J11.

I was due to be visiting relatives in Kent this weekend and normally J8 to theirs is c15 minutes, they live just off J9, currently the estimate for J8 to theirs is an hour by car, and no doubt will be worse tomorrow.

I'd give yourself an extra 20-30 minutes for the mental filtering you're going to need to do.

[anonymous-user]

Bikes get loaded at the back of the train in whatever space is left over. No idea if they have a specific policy with regard to delays, nor if a certain amount of floor space is ring-fenced for bikes, but my guess is that overcrowding and delays will affect availability for pretty much any vehicle.
This is another reason I prefer proper floaty ferries......even when they're rammed with cars there's still the odd corner here and there that's simply unusable, due to its shape or overhead clearance, for pretty much anything but a bike or two.

[Andy XRV]

I live between J8 & J9 and at the moment in peak times stack will add about 30mins to your journey. By car it can add an hour or more. When you get to the terminal you will board your train as normal. If your train is delayed you will be delayed.

[Tall_Paul]

Shouldn't need to do any mental filtering, the A20 is pretty wide, apart from the small DC section at junction 8, where 2 lanes of traffic goes into 1. After than it's all wide SC with plenty of room to filter. I'd recommend coming off at Junction 5 for Maidstone, you pick up the A20 and follow it through the town, through Bearstead and out the other side. You'll miss the M20 traffic queueing to get off. If it's not rush hour Maidstone traffic is OK. Just lots of traffic lights.

I live in Maidstone and went down to Ashford a weekend or 2 ago when stack was on, added 10 minutes to my journey. The traffic around Dover was royally fked though, but the chunnel is right off the motorway.

[italianjob1275]

Tourist traffic always takes priority over freight.

Unless migrants storm the terminal (again) or try walking through the tunnel and get splattered by a oncoming train (again) you should be fine.

[tomkil]

Thanks all. I'm planning on an early morning crossing so hoping that will help too.

[PHlL]

I went two weeks ago on a Saturday morning, first ever Eurotunnel on the bike.

Motorway was fine as you could just go past everyone. The crossing itself was fine. A kind steward saw me from a mile away and waived me down to the very front and stuck me in the flexiplus lane.

Between leaving the M20 at the Eurotunnel exit, was probably on the train within 20 minutes. It was busy, but not school holiday busy.

[trialsta]

I went down to Italy week before last and came back last week , no issues in either direction using the ferry on the bike. I was quite surprised given the amount of media coverage it has had.

Allow yourself a bit of extra time for getting into Dover but they already caused delays there with the completely unnecessary average speed camera zone.

[R8VXF]

Operation stack has currently been stood down. Check here for latest information: http://www.kent.police.uk/news/latest_news/000000_...