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Reader question: Does the UK border strike affect ferries, trains and the Channel Tunnel?

Coverage of a planned strike by British border force staff has focused on expected chaos at airports - but what about other methods of travel from France to the UK?

Reader question: Does the UK border strike affect ferries, trains and the Channel Tunnel?
Photo by Ben Stansall / AFP

Question: The news coverage of the planned strike over Christmas by UK border staff is all focused on airports – but won’t it also affect people travelling by ferry, train or on the Channel Tunnel?

The planned strike by members of the Public and Commercial Services Union is heavily focused on airports, with predictions of queues of up to 10 hours at the border, and flight cancellations.

Other transport methods are less affected, although the port of Newhaven is likely to be impacted as well.

Here’s what the PCS strike notice says: “PCS members employed by the Home Office on passport control will take action at London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow airports on December 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st [December 27th is not included].

“Members will also strike at the port of Newhaven on the same dates.”

READ ALSO Everything you need to know about how strikes will affect France-UK travel this Christmas

This will affect arrivals on the ferry into the port of Newhaven – from where a ferry service runs to Dieppe in France.

Anyone who is booked on a Dieppe-Newhaven crossing around these dates should check with their operator for any changes.

According to the current strike notice, border force officials working at other British ports including Dover, Portsmouth and Plymouth will not take part in the strike action, nor will staff at the Channel Tunnel terminal in Folkestone.

British border officials also work in the French port of Calais and at the Eurostar terminal in Gare du Nord – they have so far not indicated that they will strike. However, anyone who is booked on the Eurostar should be aware that Eurostar’s UK security staff have filed a strike notice for over the Christmas period.

Christmas travel to France: What you need to know about strikes, services and prices

British border forces bosses had warned of a ‘nightmare’ at Channel ports, especially for trucker, in the run-up to the action, but the strike notice as filed on Wednesday concerns only airports and Newhaven ferry port.

However, the prospect of heavier-than-normal traffic as travellers find alternative routes to and from Europe could lead to further delays at ports and on tunnel services.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “The government can stop these strikes tomorrow if it puts money on the table. 

“Like so many workers, our members are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. They are desperate. They are being told there is no money for them, while they watch ministers giving out government contracts worth billions of pounds to their mates.” 

As ever, things can change quickly with strike action, you can find all the latest in our strike section HERE.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Rail sabotage: What to expect if you’re travelling in France this weekend

France's rail network was on Friday hit with an apparently coordinated series of arson attacks with rail bosses saying disruption will continue over the weekend. Here's a look at the latest, plus updates on road and air travel.

Rail sabotage: What to expect if you’re travelling in France this weekend

Friday saw enormous disruption on the railways after a series of arson attacks on France’s key high-speed rail lines – find the latest here.

SNCF said that the travel plans of at least 800,000 passengers have been disrupted on Friday alone, while the transport minister announced that up to 50 percent of services on affected lines would have to be cancelled.

A quarter of Eurostar services between Paris and London were cancelled on Friday.

And the disruption is set to continue over the weekend – the arson attacks involved setting fire to “conduits carrying multiple (fibre-optic) cables” that relay “safety information for drivers” or control the motors for points that change rails.

SNCF’s CEO said: “There’s a huge number of bundled cables. We have to repair them one by one, it’s a manual operation” requiring “hundreds of workers”.

SNCF says services are expected to return to normal by Monday on most lines, but disruption will continue over the weekend.

Anyone planning to travel should check the latest on the SNCF information site here, or download the SNCF Connect app.

On Friday two in three trains were being cancelled on certain lines, and cancellations are likely to continue over the weekend. Services could also be rescheduled or delayed.

The disruption is mostly affecting the high-speed TGV routes in and out of Paris. Local lines are not directly affected but may suffer knock-on disruption.

West and south-west France – this is the most severely affected with no trains out of Gare Montparnasse at all on Friday morning.

Services restarted in the afternoon but only with around a third of the normal trains. Cancellations will continue but at least some services will run on this route over the weekend – although passengers who can postpone their journey are advised to do so. Those services that do run are expected to be very busy.

This affects services to the south-west including Bordeaux and Toulouse, and also the west including Brittany and Normandy lines.

East – trains between Paris and Lille and Paris and Arras are severely disrupted, including the Eurostar which uses the Paris-Lille high-speed tracks.

There are fewer cancellations on this line as trains are being diverted onto the slower local lines, although this is extending journey times by around two hours. On Friday a quarter of Eurostar services between London and Paris were cancelled.

South-east – the TGV Sud-Est axis, running between Paris and Lyon and onwards to Switzerland and Italy was not affected by the sabotage as an arson attack in this area was foiled. Services are running largely as normal with some knock-on disruption.

READ ALSO ‘Sabotage’ on French rail network before Olympics: What we know

Paris public transport is not affected by the sabotage although some services in the city centre are closed or diverted due to Olympics security protocols – more details here.

Roads

Sadly, things might not be much better on France’s roads this weekend – and the rail disruption seems certain only to make an already difficult travel weekend even worse. The French ride-share app BlaBlaCar said it had seen an 88 percent increase in bookings on Friday as people scrambled for an alternative to the train.

This weekend is France’s traditional ‘cross-over’ weekend for 2024. The chassé-croisé happens each year during the final weekend in July, is the annual moment when July holidaymakers start to return home while the August holidaymakers head off for their big summer getaways.

France’s traffic watchdog, Bison Futé, predicted that traffic will be heavy on Friday, with extremely difficult traffic conditions on the roads on Saturday, while Sunday will be slightly calmer.

READ ALSO Traffic: What to expect during the 2024 ‘chassé-croisé’ weekend in France 

Airports

The worst of the global IT outage appears to be over, but no one’s even going to attempt to deny that French airports are very busy at this time of year – it’s the world’s most popular tourist destination at the most popular tourist time of the year.

And airports in the Paris region, in particular, are gearing up for an especially busy period, with thousands of Olympic Games fans expected over the next couple of weeks.

From 6.30pm until 12 midnight (CET) on Friday, July 26th, a no-fly zone will be in place within a 150km radius of the French capital for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games.

This will mean flights will be interrupted at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle (CDG), Orly airports, and Beauvais airports – this should have little effect on travel plans as airlines have adapted their schedules, having been notified of the no-fly security perimeter in 2023.

Flight resume as normal at 00.01am on Saturday and there are no expected disruptions over the weekend.

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