Winseer:
Hey, I didn’t realize that the rail line between Dover and Folkstone was totally dug up at Shakespeare Hill… 
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You can see the air shafts for that pair of narrow tunnels alongside the A20 road. Seems rather a lot for such a short stretch of tunnel tho.
That’s where the sea wall has been washed away along with the railway line (Which of course is currently closed). The wall is being rebuilt and the line should be open again soon.
Big problems for locals in the Dover area right now, rail and road links in absolute chaos!
The tunnel on your pic further up the A20 is the access road to Samphire Hoe Country Park which was constructed with the spoil from the channel tunnel, well worth a visit.
Martin:
Winseer:
Hey, I didn’t realize that the rail line between Dover and Folkstone was totally dug up at Shakespeare Hill…
0
You can see the air shafts for that pair of narrow tunnels alongside the A20 road. Seems rather a lot for such a short stretch of tunnel tho.
That’s where the sea wall has been washed away along with the railway line (Which of course is currently closed). The wall is being rebuilt and the line should be open again soon.
Big problems for locals in the Dover area right now, rail and road links in absolute chaos!
The tunnel on your pic further up the A20 is the access road to Samphire Hoe Country Park which was constructed with the spoil from the channel tunnel, well worth a visit.
Thanks for that - I always thought that batcave tunnel you can see from the main road - led to some industrial estate like the one at Swanscombe, as I never saw private cars going in and out of there…
I’ll check that place out next time I’m in the neighbourhood. 
JFC999:
OVLOV JAY:
We do a regular Madrid round trip, and we’ve stopped using Dover-Calais. We now go Portsmouth Bilbao, and while it costs about £1500 more, with the saved time, diesel and tolls, it’s a no brainer
Sounds a great route , how much time on boat ?
Jim.
26 hours. Then it’s roughly ten hours to get down, tip reload and get back to the port and wait for the next boat
Winseer:
Hey, I didn’t realize that the rail line between Dover and Folkstone was totally dug up at Shakespeare Hill…
0
You can see the air shafts for that pair of narrow tunnels alongside the A20 road. Seems rather a lot for such a short stretch of tunnel tho.
Built in the days of chuffa chuffa choo choos.
What amazes me is how so many people can actually be affording to take a holiday in France this year - looking at how expensive it is now.
It’s not that much dearer, it’s going to add about £60 to our week away in sept. Plus a lot of these people probably planned their hols months ago and certainly won’t let an extra few quid stop them.
How do you deal with driver hours in these queues ? Obviously stuck in a queue for a few hours beyond your daily limit you would just make a note on the back of a print out and take a full break as soon as possible. But queuing and edging forward for 24 + hours, and in the longer term how do you deal with this for weekly hours ?
I docked at Dover at 1am sat night & it was still looking horrible then, I went out Weds & had over 1 hr delay out, my pal however shipped out on Thurs had no probs.
cav551:
Winseer:
Hey, I didn’t realize that the rail line between Dover and Folkstone was totally dug up at Shakespeare Hill…
You can see the air shafts for that pair of narrow tunnels alongside the A20 road. Seems rather a lot for such a short stretch of tunnel tho.
Built in the days of chuffa chuffa choo choos.
The tunnels are really narrow inside, which I assume is for geological reasons. That’s a lot of erodable clifftop above you there.
There are also narrow tunnels on the Tonbridge-Hastings line, which used to have slim diesel trains going through them.
The reason for these being slim - was because the original tunnels were so sodden, that an extra layer of bricks around the inside was required to shore them up… Thus the tunnel got narrower by the width of a course of bricks (9 inches either side), and the original mainstream locomotives and rolling stock wouldn’t fit any more! Special “slim” trains with their slim rolling stock were used, with diesel locomotive units until the line was electrified during the 80’s I believe. The same were used on the “other” Hastings line from Ashford to Hastings via Rye. Coming from Hastings as I do, I remember as a kid seeing the tunnels at both ends of Warrior Square station being so filled with smoke - you couldn’t see the light at the other end of the otherwise dead-straight tunnels…
Today, one of the tracks has been taken up inside the tunnels, and normal trains now run on both remaining lines again outside the tunnels again… When the too-narrow tunnels are approached, the double lines run into a single line for traversing the middle of the tunnel, and goes back to a double line when emerging from the other side, as seen in this pic showing Somerhill Tunnel near Pembury…
During the early 90’s running to Poland and beyond we were regularly held up for 24 hrs or more sometimes getting to the lorry park at Frankfurt de Oder, sit for about 4 hours then all move a bit nearer. There was a chap came along on moped and gave a bang on the door in case you was having a kip.
toby1234abc:
Spain gives Gibraltar the long delays getting out of Gib for Customs to check every vehicle, when the law says free movement at borders .
Youre right. Thats why we get off the ferry in the UK and simply drive off. No Customs, Immigration, or other delays here in the UK is there?
Ovlov jay.what outfit do you run for doing Madrid,or are you a office Waller…? Doing a post
Is it both the tunnel and the ferry terminals affected or just Dover ferries ?. 
If the latter maybe artificial inconveniencing of ferry traffic because of lack of demand for the tunnel.Bearing in mind the French have lost out in the ferry service provision v UK operators while the Shuttle is French based. 
Rog270:
Ovlov jay.what outfit do you run for doing Madrid,or are you a office Waller…? Doing a post
We do a regular bi monthly job, for a firm near Heathrow. We also do Antwerp twice a month as well as weekly domestic loads. All on the back of loading maersk exports for them, they liked the way we run, now we use 40 dry vans as a standard box trailer and do most of their work
Rog270:
Ovlov jay.what outfit do you run for doing Madrid,or are you a office Waller…? Doing a post
Jay is a working lorry driver who’s credentials have been proven many times. What are you bringing to the table?
Carryfast:
Is it both the tunnel and the ferry terminals affected or just Dover ferries ?. If the latter maybe artificial inconveniencing of ferry traffic because of lack of demand for the tunnel.Bearing in mind the French have lost out in the ferry service provision v UK operators while the Shuttle is French based.
The main problem is at Dover, the Tunnel reporting a normal service for freight. The Eastbound traffic on the M20 yesterday morning was as heavy as normal weekday peak times, just fewer lorries. The extent of the queues seems to vary almost hourly.
Winseer:
Agreed. The French are inflicting “Operation Stack” upon our general public now - as punishment for Brexit.
Maybe more to it than that.The French obviously lost out v the competition on the Dover Calais route.While the Shuttle tunnel service doesn’t seem to be affected for ‘some’ reason.While French ferry operations obviously also gain if traffic is put off going Dover Calais to the more western crossings.
cav551:
Carryfast:
Is it both the tunnel and the ferry terminals affected or just Dover ferries ?. If the latter maybe artificial inconveniencing of ferry traffic because of lack of demand for the tunnel.Bearing in mind the French have lost out in the ferry service provision v UK operators while the Shuttle is French based.
The main problem is at Dover, the Tunnel reporting a normal service for freight. The Eastbound traffic on the M20 yesterday morning was as heavy as normal weekday peak times, just fewer lorries. The extent of the queues seems to vary almost hourly.
30 minute delays reported for the tunnel owing to ‘large volumes of traffic’.Which suggests more demand for the ferry combined with reported less processing provision by French immigration.French ferry and tunnel operations gaining from creation of any dissuasion regards demand for Dover Calais route to the tunnel or western channel crossings.
I went in on the A2 today, queue started halfway down Jubilee Way, took about 15 minutes from there to the port entrance, once in the port it the big queues are for cars and coaches, so wasn’t to bad through the freight lane, just over an hour to get on the boat,
Was feeling right smug until I tried to get out of France, it’s queued up as they taking everything off near the border round a roundabout and back on the motorway. Supposed to be for security checks, soldiers and police stood watching the vehicles go round the roundabout.
On dfds Dover Dunkerque now straight through and waited 55 mins. To board 12:00. Hardly anybody in drivers lounge.
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