Inflated volumes of freight, cars, passengers and coaches are continuing to flow briskly through the Port of Dover following the Channel Tunnel fire.

Last week* saw nearly 54,000 freight vehicles, 58,500 tourist cars, 2683 coaches and more than 305,000 passengers travelling through the port.

The last two weeks have seen daily freight traffic exceeding 10,000 units. Operation Stack, the Kent Police system of holding freight traffic on the M20 when the port does not have the capacity to receive it, has only been deployed on four occasions.

“Clearly the port is demonstrating its ability to step in and handle higher volumes at a time when the Channel Tunnel is operating at reduced capacity,” says Bob Goldfield, Chief Executive, Port of Dover.

“In addition to this solid increase in freight, we are now moving into the annual Christmas surge of shopping excursions to the hypermarkets and continental Christmas markets. The port is running smoothly to keep the UK’s economic supply chain unbroken and to keep leisure travel on track.”

*week commencing 22 September

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