Has anyone been to France through the tunnel since the new rules came in?

[OhBollocks23]

Just that, really... how much faff and time is it adding?

To be clear, car tunnel, not passenger train tunnel, if that makes a difference to faff levels.

Yes a couple of weeks ago -no delays.

I have been to lots of European countries since the introduction of EES. Eurostar and tunnel are far and away the most efficient.

Family did in May half term. Glad they booked flexible tickets because there were massive queues getting to the terminal because of the checks. They missed their original booked crossing by a few hours.

How does it work out of interest?are the fingerprint /photo booths in the terminal? Or do you get out of your car at a certain point? We’ve done the airport so far in May half term but travelling on the tunnel in a couple weeks, bracing ourselves for massive delays!

Any idea how it is for people travelling with EU passports? We all have dual nationalities but there were never separate lines.

We have a full flexi ticket for August but will travel for around 8 hours from Calais so I hope we manage to get through border control easier.

We also go mid-week, I hope that helps as well.

It is not in operation yet at the Eurotunnel

Thanks all, interesting. We're also going mid-week, hadn't thought that would help but hopefully does.

@hannahm, when is it in operation, do you know? The internet suggests it's already in place.

Curious that one person faced huge delays and one none at all. Official estimates say a couple of minutes, which felt optimistic, so I thought I'd ask some real people!

We travelled last weekend. Not in operation. Still massive queues though which was due to work being done at the tunnel and volume of traffic. We arrived early and just queued and got on our scheduled time but didn’t have any time to get out of the car. There was also a delay returning with no obvious reason. There is a Facebook page you can follow that keeps you updated with the situation and the traffic info part of the Eurotunnel app was accurate (saying an hour delay).

It wasn’t any different. Don’t think they’re doing it for cars yet, just buses?! Super speedy on the way out but v slow returning due to some bad lane management and searches blocking other lanes going through, then there was a technical issue with a train. But that’s classic for the chunnel; when you get delays they never to seem follow any obvious or predictable pattern. Download the app for on the day info.

I read (with great relief) it’s not in operation yet for cars just yesterday in the Times.

@court18 and @hannahm, thank you! Have now done more than a cursory panicked Google and you're right (obviously you know that!) it's not working for cars yet, and fingers crossed won't be by my travel time (early August).

Good to have a thread for updates if and when it does get rolled out.

Yes, they got rid of the new rules within two days of starting aka chaos so it was as smooth as anything, zero queue (we arrived 2 hours early expecting chaos) so were put on a train 90 minutes early

Yeah we use it frequently. No difference for us as yet. Same shambles and queues as ever. 🤣

There is a separate lane for EU passports. I'm not sure what happens if some of the passengers have only a UK passport - under the EU rules about mixed parties, non-EU passport holders can use the EU passport lane when travelling with EU family members but are still required to provide EES biometrics. But if you are all EU, you should be fine. Just make sure you don't get sent down the non-UK lane by default if you have UK number plates, so be prepared to wave your passports at whoever is herding the traffic. They ought to be used to French people who live in the UK going home for the weekend.

No difference in either direction for us (travelled out and returned in the last 2 weeks). No scanners and no queues. Quiet both times so we’re put on earlier crossings (to be fair it was mid week and not school holidays).

DD is there now trying to get back to UK, queues are huge apparently.

Travelled through this week UK to France. The EES machines are cordoned off and not in use as there is a software issue between the uk and France. No date for when it will be up and running. So it’s as normal with manual passport stamping currently. Huge queues the last few weeks have been due to high temperatures and when that happens I believe they have to reduce capacity. No current separation of EU non EU but they have signage up which looks like they may have separate queues when EES operational.

We went through very quickly with no delays on the Monday with a flexi plus ticket.

Also used a EU dog passport for DDog and wasn’t asked anything (not supposed to use one now as not EU resident).

They tried to introduce it in May half term and had to stop because it caused gridlock in Folkestone.

in general the tunnel is a totally different experience on peak times (first and last weekends of school holidays are peak peak) when there can be 6 hour waits and cars backing up down the motorway (ok that worst case but we’ve had it more than once), vs other times when you might sail straight through

Completely agree! The last time I came back was a Sunday -won’t make that mistake again!
Going in Seotember and will go and return on eg a Tuesday

We got caught out on the May half term Saturday, arrived in France 4 hours late. They had already stopped using it but the knock on effect was chaos

No issues on the way back