Dover steps in to help stranded passengers
The Port of Dover has helped get stranded Britons home. Photo: Piotr Kuczynski
The Port of Dover has stepped into the breach left by the recent airline crisis. Through a concerted and coordinated effort by port and ferry operators to help stranded travellers, the port helped over quarter of a million people to get home.
This equates to around 600 Boeing 747s or 336 full Eurostar trains.
With flight restrictions only now being released, the travel options are still grim for some, and with limited alternatives available the Port of Dover has been spearheading round the clock operations. This has meant 10 times as many foot passengers compared to normal for this time of year.
However, it has not just been UK residents coming back, the port has also provided a life line for thousands of passengers trying to reach destinations not only in Europe but also as far as Africa and the Far East, extending its traditional role and operating as a global hub.
Bob Goldfield, chief executive of the port said, ‘It is a proud time to be in charge at Dover, overseeing and witnessing a magnificent response to such an unprecedented situation. Once again Dover has showed its resilience in a time of world crisis.’
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) also stepped in to help by offering time limited exemptions to the ferry companies operating out of Dover allowing a further 10% of passengers to be carried on larger ferries.
The MCA said the measures applied to vessels in good weather and in daylight as they already carried enough lifesaving equipment, but it was careful to discourage what might have seemed heroic but ultimately unsafe rescue operations, and pointed out ‘vessels must be properly certificated in order to make such a journey.’
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