Congestion in the Port of Dover

Ships in the Port of Dover

24th July 2009

These are some photos I took on 14th Sept 2004. I was up at the National Trust site above the port and noticed the huge tailback of traffic. The SeaFrance computer system had broken down. When that happens to one of the ferry operators, the queue for that operator stretches back from the booths to the point in the corner of the port called Compactor Corner. Thereupon, trucks and cars for other operators cannot get past to enter the lanes for their own booths. Consequently, the traffic comes to halt and starts to build back all the way through the port, all the way back through the town, and then all the way back along the A20 towards Folkestone. Needless to say, this causes gridlock in the town of Dover.

I am posting this because the same thing has happened today, on 24th July 2009, with a computer systems failure at P&O.

Freight traffic choked at Compactor Corner

Freight building back through the approach

Freight tailing back all the way through Dover and for miles back on the A20