Sudden strike from Eurotunnel staff causing M20 shutdown

15 miles of the M20 has been closed as unexpected strike action by French Eurotunnel staff has halted services through the Channel Tunnel.

Transcript

00:00 Gabriel, you got into quite a bit of traffic heading down there yourself.

00:03 What's it looking like now?

00:04 Well, I've stood on a bridge just above the coastbound exit onto Junction 8.

00:12 That's for Leeds Castle.

00:14 I've just stepped to the side.

00:15 You can see traffic's now at a complete standstill.

00:18 Traffic, cars and other vehicles other than lorries won't be allowed down the M20

00:24 between Junctions 8 and 9.

00:28 That's because Kent Police are stacking lorries.

00:31 It's similar to Operation Brock, although this is a bit more of an ad hoc.

00:36 We last saw this in the summer when there was a manhunt for the prison escapee, Daniel Khalif.

00:41 Now, as you say, Abbie, I actually got stuck in the traffic when they initially closed Junction 8.

00:46 I was stuck there for around about one hour in gridlocked traffic.

00:49 That was to allow the highways teams and Kent Police, I believe, to put out the cones and put out the signs

00:54 to actually advise cars and vehicles on what to do and to get all the vehicles off the motorway.

01:01 Now, this is all because Eurostar services have been suspended alongside Eurotunnel

01:07 and the shuttle trains from Folkestone to Calais.

01:11 That's because of a strike, an unexpected strike from French Eurotunnel staff.

01:16 It means that trains are not able to travel through the Eurotunnel.

01:20 Now, it is very windy, as you can see. That actually just nearly blew the camera over.

01:25 So we'll carry on. I think it's just about safety.

01:27 But that wind has been causing some severe delays elsewhere on the train network today.

01:34 Services going from London, Euston and Kings Cross have been disrupted today because of that wind.

01:40 You can, well, I can feel the power of it here.

01:42 It just took our camera out, and I'm a little bit worried it might take it out again because of the severe wind.

01:50 Now, let me just bring you a statement from what Eurostar sent us.

01:54 We did reach out to Eurostar.

01:56 Now, they said due to a last-minute strike by Eurotunnel staff,

02:00 no channel tunneling crossings have taken place since 12 o'clock today.

02:04 Unfortunately, Eurostar had to cancel all trains to and from London until further notice,

02:09 and customers affected will receive direct communication about their services.

02:13 And we understand that many passengers are also heading down to Dover,

02:17 to the port to make other means of crossing.

02:21 Now, it's not clear when this will be lifted, to be honest.

02:25 This was an unexpected strike.

02:26 Tomorrow is expected by experts to be the busiest day on our roads since before the pandemic.

02:33 So it could be chaos on our roads just before Christmas.

02:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]