The situation at the port of Dover, where thousands of trucks were stuck for several days, is returning to normal and traffic to Calais "
weakens sharply
", after the passage of 2200 heavy goods vehicles on Friday 25 December and 1500 on Saturday 26 December at 6:00 p.m. announced the management of the port of Calais.
Read also: More than 4,500 drivers stranded in Dover were able to leave
“
We recorded a traffic of 1000 heavy goods vehicles on Thursday 24 December from Dover, 2200 on Friday 25 December and at 6:00 pm today, Saturday 26 December, we recorded 1500. Import traffic has weakened sharply for a few hours. because the situation is resolved in the United Kingdom
”, told AFP the deputy managing director of the company which operates the ports of Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, Benoît Rochet.
Friday, Christmas Day, the port had remained exceptionally open, the ferry companies embarked vehicles only in the direction Dover-Calais.
Read also: In Calais, French road hauliers worried and angry
On the side of the Channel Tunnel, some 1,000 trucks had crossed from Folkestone (England) to Coquelles on Saturday around 6 p.m., against 400 in the other direction, according to a spokesperson for Getlink, the operator of the tunnel.
While storm Bella must hit north-west France overnight, with gusts of up to 130 km / h over exposed headlands, “
we are closely following the various advisories.
Shipping companies will adapt their services according to the conditions recorded
”, specified the management of the port of Calais.
But "
the traffic being very low, any delays would have little impact,
" she added.
Thousands of drivers found themselves stranded when France, worried about a new strain of the potentially more contagious novel coronavirus identified in the south-east of England, closed its borders to arrivals from the United Kingdom at midnight on Sunday.
Including Dover, the main cross-Channel port, and the neighboring tunnel, through which thousands of heavy goods vehicles circulate every day.
If France has authorized traffic to resume Wednesday, December 23, it requires a negative test, requiring days of work to check the positive or negative status of the Covid.