by Hyde Ranger » Wed Aug 05, 2015 9:54 am
I'm afraid this post is going to make me look like a mean old scare-mongerer but I have to say we've just had a horrendous time both crossing to and returning from France (the bit in between, while actually in France, was wonderful though!). I think we got our timings terribly wrong. We went down Friday before last in the evening, and operation stack was in place. The detour added over an hour to our journey - my heart goes out to people living along that detour -how do they live their lives normally when the roads around them are that gridlocked at certain times? We were supposed to check in at 7.20 but missed this by about half an hour.
When we arrived we found there had been 'an incident in the tunnel'. What this actually meant was desperate people had got into the tunnel and some had lost their lives. We were put on a car-train but ended up sitting there (right next to the loos, lovely!) until after 1am our time with practically no information from Eurotunnel except what we could glean from their twitter account. Some people were saying disgusting things on Twitter - yes it is horrible sitting there, not knowing when you are going to get moving, but human beings have died, which really should put your delayed holiday in perspective.
We ended up getting to our stopover hotel in Rouen at 5.20 am - time for a few hours sleep and a shower!
The return (last night) was less horrendous, but again there had been 'an incident' in the tunnel - I don't know if anyone died, I pray not - our crossing this time was delayed by just over 90 minutes. It felt worse as we had arrived over an hour earlier than necessary hoping to be put on an earlier crossing (always possible in previous years). We had naively assumed that being a Tuesday night we'd have an easier time of it!
All this said, I think we just managed to go for crossings that coincided with major incidents in the tunnel. We spoke to a lady in France whose son had crossed without incident this Friday night, so it probably really is all in the timing. I really did regret not going for the ferry at Portsmouth - ironically I'd thought we'd save time with the Tunnel! I do think Eurotunnel could give more information, or turn people away before check-in, but then I presume they are trying to save business. We did find it stressful, especially as it was part of a long drive on the French side and therefore a lot of arrangements were thrown out the window, but as I said to my grumbling teenagers, we are fortunate to have lovely holidays in the French countryside, and for this delay to be a big deal for us, while these poor people are risking their lives, through a combination of desperation and naivety about the dangers.
I'm afraid this post is going to make me look like a mean old scare-mongerer but I have to say we've just had a horrendous time both crossing to and returning from France (the bit in between, while actually in France, was wonderful though!). I think we got our timings terribly wrong. We went down Friday before last in the evening, and operation stack was in place. The detour added over an hour to our journey - my heart goes out to people living along that detour -how do they live their lives normally when the roads around them are that gridlocked at certain times? We were supposed to check in at 7.20 but missed this by about half an hour.
When we arrived we found there had been 'an incident in the tunnel'. What this actually meant was desperate people had got into the tunnel and some had lost their lives. We were put on a car-train but ended up sitting there (right next to the loos, lovely!) until after 1am our time with practically no information from Eurotunnel except what we could glean from their twitter account. Some people were saying disgusting things on Twitter - yes it is horrible sitting there, not knowing when you are going to get moving, but human beings have died, which really should put your delayed holiday in perspective.
We ended up getting to our stopover hotel in Rouen at 5.20 am - time for a few hours sleep and a shower!
The return (last night) was less horrendous, but again there had been 'an incident' in the tunnel - I don't know if anyone died, I pray not - our crossing this time was delayed by just over 90 minutes. It felt worse as we had arrived over an hour earlier than necessary hoping to be put on an earlier crossing (always possible in previous years). We had naively assumed that being a Tuesday night we'd have an easier time of it!
All this said, I think we just managed to go for crossings that coincided with major incidents in the tunnel. We spoke to a lady in France whose son had crossed without incident this Friday night, so it probably really is all in the timing. I really did regret not going for the ferry at Portsmouth - ironically I'd thought we'd save time with the Tunnel! I do think Eurotunnel could give more information, or turn people away before check-in, but then I presume they are trying to save business. We did find it stressful, especially as it was part of a long drive on the French side and therefore a lot of arrangements were thrown out the window, but as I said to my grumbling teenagers, we are fortunate to have lovely holidays in the French countryside, and for this delay to be a big deal for us, while these poor people are risking their lives, through a combination of desperation and naivety about the dangers.
