Brexit finally ends channel Crossing

I'm wondering whether ferry companies operate differently? In Plymouth with Brittany Ferries the school kids are offloaded from the coach and walk on in crocodile fashion while the driver waits, which saves all the tedious hanging around on the coach.
PS I never know whether the ferry is packed or not because I'm in my Commodore Class cabin, highly recommended! 🍷 😋

Joseanne They will cope as they always have done in the past (see my previous post)

Joseanne

^I cannot see how these ferries are going to cope with delays caused by larger loads in holiday periods.^
Will it actually not ease off in the summer holidays because there will be far fewer coaches (no school trips) and children will be dispersed in cars with their parents making checks easier?

Possibly. but I would think that a full ferry would carry a number of people more than equivalent to the numbers in the coachloads of school parties. Even with the 8 coach loads of children on our ferry yesterday the ferry was less than half empty. I might not have travelled this route as frequently as MOnica but having travelled all the routes, Poole - Cherbourg, Portsmouth - Cherbourg and Portsmouth - Caen, in spring, summer and early autumn over the past 30 years I do know what a full ferry looks like... If a less than half full ferry can be delayed by an hour or more, what happens with a full one?

And, unless the 90 day rule is going to be ignored, I can't see that having to check all the passport stamps to tot up the number of days already spent in Schengen is going to be a quick job for the passport control staff.

(I wondered idly, too, if all that passport stamping might lead to repetitive strain injuries )

I cannot see how these ferries are going to cope with delays caused by larger loads in holiday periods.
Will it actually not ease off in the summer holidays because there will be far fewer coaches (no school trips) and children will be dispersed in cars with their parents making checks easier?

Thanks for the links varian.
I was looking for some kind of meaningful comparison between the current situation and the story in Kafka's der Prozeß, 1914, which is seen as a satire of the Austro-Hungarian bureaucracy in Kafka's day.
And in the end, completely unresolvable.

We are regular travellers on the Portsmouth-Ouistreham (Caen) ferry and there has been very little change in the processing time at Ouistreham since Brexit.

The French were already doing passport checks before Brexit, in the same way that the UK never stopped doing passport checks at Portsmouth throughout the years we were EU members.

We have been doing the journey 8-10 times a year for 30 years and while in the early years we drove off the ferry and away, that has long ceased.

We have watched as security at the ports has got tighter and tighter. To begin with little security or fences and you wandered in and out, then fences, then double fences with razor wire, now armed police wandering around as well.

This has happened first because of the risk of terrorism, going back the end of the last century and then African immigrants trying to smuggle themselves into the UK, although this has more or less ended now, too few ferries and lorries driving straight into the protected port area without stopping or slowing down.

Brexit, itself, has had little effect on processing time through Ouistreham.

Katie59

varian

Sorry it is behind the FT paywall

Is a story about the treatment of a group of French school children visiting Stratford upon Avon and the absurd beaurocracy they had to deal with to get visas.

Their teacher who had been leading groups to the UK for more than twenty years described their treatment as "Kafkaesque"

Three of the children, who were nationals of China, Nigeria and Georgia wre not permitted to enter the UK although another, a Cambodian national was.

You don’t need a visa if you have a French passport, but I can imagine there are a lot of children in French schools that other passports, hence the problem.

This exactly. France and most other EU countries have Identity Cards, and before Brexit, tourists could visit the UK using those. The UK no longer allows it- so everyone needs a passport, which is expensive to get.

Another difference is that in France and most other EU countries, children at secondary schools are taught as a 'class' the stay together for all subjects (unlike the UK when they are mostly in 'forms' but taught in separate groups for different subjects. If I organised a trip abroad, be it language, culture, ski, etc - then some children from many forms would come along- and others not. In France (and other EU countries mostly)- children from ONE class would go on a trip- the whole class, no exceptions. Either they all go, or they don't go. One of the reason is social/educational- the other is that they do not have a system where teachers cover for absent teachers, as in the UK.

varian

Sorry it is behind the FT paywall

Is a story about the treatment of a group of French school children visiting Stratford upon Avon and the absurd beaurocracy they had to deal with to get visas.

Their teacher who had been leading groups to the UK for more than twenty years described their treatment as "Kafkaesque"

Three of the children, who were nationals of China, Nigeria and Georgia wre not permitted to enter the UK although another, a Cambodian national was.

You don’t need a visa if you have a French passport, but I can imagine there are a lot of children in French schools that other passports, hence the problem.

Joseanne

If BA can manage to build a new 777 in Toulon post Brexit, during covid, with parts from France, Germany, Spain and the UK, then the government is very slow to get any suitable scheme for passport control in Dover off the ground.

I'm afraid it's not just Dover.

We've just come back for a few days in France, travelling Portsmouth - Caen. Ferries both to and from France were very empty but queues at passport control took a long time to get through. I dread to think what it will be like in the summer when the ferries are fuller.

Our early morning return ferry today was late into Caen as it had been held up at Portsmouth processing several coachloads of school parties. This was the overnight ferry, which 'should' have been able to make up time on the crossing if it is a bit late leaving Portsmouth (as it has about 8 hours in which to do the normal 6 hour crossing), but it arrived so late that by the time the overnight passengers has disembarked and we'd been loaded it was 1 hour late in leaving. And this was a very empty ferry so loading didn't take as long as it would had it been fuller.

I cannot see how these ferries are going to cope with delays caused by larger loads in holiday periods

Or, as people accumulate stamps in their passports, how the French border people in the UK are going to cope with having to tot up how many days they've been in the EU to check that they're not exceeding their 90 days in 180.

More links to this story

www.ft.com/content/65905653-5c2f-4247-81e3-73140dceae8a

www.businesstelegraph.co.uk/european-school-groups-describe-kafkaesque-visa-process-for-uk-visits/

ukdaily.news/european-school-groups-describe-the-kafkaesque-visa-process-for-visits-to-the-uk-431275.html

Sorry it is behind the FT paywall

Is a story about the treatment of a group of French school children visiting Stratford upon Avon and the absurd beaurocracy they had to deal with to get visas.

Their teacher who had been leading groups to the UK for more than twenty years described their treatment as "Kafkaesque"

Three of the children, who were nationals of China, Nigeria and Georgia wre not permitted to enter the UK although another, a Cambodian national was.

Can't read it varian, but I assume der Prozeß, or is it der Process these days?

European school groups visiting UK subjected to "kafkaesque" Post brexit treatment

www.ft.com/content/65905653-5c2f-4247-81e3-73140dceae8a

If BA can manage to build a new 777 in Toulon post Brexit, during covid, with parts from France, Germany, Spain and the UK, then the government is very slow to get any suitable scheme for passport control in Dover off the ground.

Oh they knew- and had been warned. And this for many years too.

Well, maybe someone should have realised sooner there'd be a mad rush to get away this Easter and done something to sort it.

Because of Covid few were traveling enmass that we have seen this year, it’s the first “normal” year since Brexit and the arrangements have not been adequate for coaches.

We can hope that will be improved in the future.

Never heard the phrase at all anywhere at any time or in any other form.

I thought it was just a question of national decision, and after that what happens is up to the Scottish, and is no longer of interest to the rest of the UK.

Aye. Good, isn't it?

Good encapsulation of the unconscious bias of some Unionists.

Ive never heard anyone, except SNP supporters, use that expression volver

No, I'd say about 50% of the people I know personally, voted to stay in the Union. Had a coffee with one last week.

We agreed that Scotland is not being served well in the current situation. Her solution would be more devolution, mine would be independence. We discuss that. Oh I miss the days when everybody was having constitutional discussions in the queue for the bus...

None of my friends however, are of the "Too poor, too wee, too stupid" opinion.

volver3

Some people have the skills and capability to understand when a paper's inherent bias is leading them up the garden path.

Others....well, others voted Brexit.

Or, no doubt in your view voted to stay in the union😂

Amazing tho not surprising that if a person holds strong views on a subject they really believe that those who hold opposite or different views are mentally defective.
Well known on forums.

Some people have the skills and capability to understand when a paper's inherent bias is leading them up the garden path.

Others....well, others voted Brexit.

No 10 said the holdups are due to Brexit

Fleurpepper
I read the Guardian and the Independent. Both, imo are reputable newspapers so I wouldn’t tell anyone not to believe what they publish.
But we have been told not to believe the Express.