10433 CHANNEL TUNNEL any hard information on delays?

It seems very difficult to find out exactly what is happening if you have a booking apart from the only one every two hours and long delays. Its almost as if there is a media blackout on this information. The info on the tunnel website tends to change everyday. Does anyone know anything about what is happening - trying to decide whether to book onto another channel crossing and hang the expense. Don't think I fancy waiting around for 4 or 5 hours to cross. Appreciate anything known, not the press reports.

Category
Travel & Holiday Advice

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 12:52

Info is limited - the latest I found is;-

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Travel information for Tuesday 16 to
Sunday 21 September

Due to an incident last week at Eurotunnel, we are currently operating a limited Passenger Service with one departure expected every two hours.

Please find below an outline of our Revised Shuttle Service.

Revised Shuttle Service Timetable

06:00 to 20:00 (local time) from Folkestone to Calais

08:00 to 22:00 (local time) from Calais to Folkestone

Note: There will be no overnight service during this period.

Customers are requested to respect their booked departure time, within the times of the Revised Shuttle Service Timetable. However, please be aware extended waiting times are to be expected.

Customers with a booked departure time outside of the Revised Shuttle Service Timetable above, should arrive between 06:00 and 20:00 from Folkestone to Calais and between 08:00 and 22:00 from Calais to Folkestone (local time), to avoid an over-extended waiting period.

To rebook your travel for an alternative date, please call our Customer Contact Centre on 08705 35 35 35.

To cancel your booked travel and request a refund, please send an email stating your name, address and booking reference number to [email]sales.support@eurotunnel.com[/email]
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I reckon that they will be running a first come first served service - otherwise queueing would get out of hand

If that's the case, I would plan for a minimum of 2hrs wait before boarding [could be a fair bit more] - so it could pay to cancel and book a ferry.

Don't forget Norfolk Line and Speedferries from Dover, as well as Sea France and P&O.

If travelling from [say] Liverpool/Manchester and North thereof, also Hull Rotterdam service [P&O I think]

Good Luck,

.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 13:53

Thanks for all that Alan that's all the info I have been able to find apart from reports of increased ferry traffic.Your thoughts about the queue horrors are mine too. I was hoping for some insider information that would make me feel it was worth continuing with my booking. It would be galling to overnight for an early tunnel to spend hours waiting in queues. I'm minded to take the ferry to Hull and benefit from no hotel, no drive up from Kent to Yorkshire etc, etc not much difference in cost at the end of the day..

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 17:11

[quote=Cassini;97109]............ I'm minded to take the ferry to Hull and benefit from no hotel, no drive up from Kent to Yorkshire etc, etc not much difference in cost at the end of the day..[/quote]

My daughter did that crossing this year - seemed OK. Also - the mileage from Rotterdam to Italy is very similar to that from Calais, so you don't have to drive any further, and you have the advantage of a full days driving to/from the ferry

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 09/17/2008 - 06:33

1 passenger 2 car per hour until the 21st of this month.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 09/17/2008 - 16:18

Having decided to go to Hull was delighted and surprised to be rung by Euro Tunnel today (having emailed them last weekend) and offered a refund.

For anyone else in the same situation, I had an email this evening telling me that I would be allocated a new time for departure and was to adhere to this time but had the option to rebook or cancel and ask for a refund. So obviously there must be some difficulty with people not sticking to their bookings and huge queues. If you can get a refund do and go another way.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 09/17/2008 - 16:38

[quote=PAS 55;97175]1 passenger 2 car per hour until the 21st of this month.[/quote]

Eurotunnel's website says that the current position for cars is one train every two hours in each direction, during the daytime and early evening only. This compares very poorly to the usual service of (I think) three trains an hour during the day and trains running throughout the night.

Eurostar passenger trains are now running 12 trains a day Paris to London and vice-versa, and six Brussels-London, a significant reduction but not nearly as severe as that for the Eurotunnel car service.