As the last schools break up for the holiday, and temperatures look set to soar, the Port of Dover is gearing up for its biggest tourist weekends of the year.

Saturdays in the six-week school holiday period see peak volumes of passengers and tourist cars, with passenger numbers doubling from the typical Wednesday holiday volume, and three-times the number of cars.

“On Saturday 27 July, we expect more than 18,000 cars through the port, rising to between 19,500 and 20,000 cars on our anticipated peak day, Saturday 23 August,” says Bob Goldfield, chief executive, Port of Dover. “We’re also expecting 80,000 passengers this Saturday, rising to around 86,000 on our busiest day.”

The port’s operation team plays its part in smoothing the way for tourists well beyond the port and the ferry.

“We monitor closely all traffic flows hitting the M25 from the north and west, over the Dartford Crossing and on all routes to the port, and alert travellers to any delays. Currently, there are no roadworks that should affect driving times to the port.”

And in spite of high tourist volumes, holiday-makers will find plenty of room on board, according to Bob Goldfield.

“The good news for tourists is that haulage volumes peak on Wednesdays and fall away during the weekend – the perfect solution all round.

“Equally, car drivers are welcome at any hour of the day or night, any day of the week, and we will be sure to get them away, no matter how busy the port is.”

For crossings, travel, traffic and weather details, visit www.doverport.co.uk

Eurostar has announced that from Monday 23 February 2009, its services will be faster and more frequent. The operation of repairs, known as ‘Interval-6″, will be completed by 10 February allowing Eurostar to plan and implement the switch-over to full service.

Between 10 and 22 February, Eurostar will continue to operate its existing departure times with some trains likely to arrive earlier than currently timetabled.

From 23 February, Eurostar will resume normal service with all services operating at full speed, and fastest non-stop journey times of London-Paris 2 h 15 minutes, London to Brussels 1 hour 51 minutes and London Lille 1 hour 20 minutes.

There will be more trains, with up to 19 services per day on the London-Paris route and up to 10 on the London-Brussels route. With the return to full tunnel capacity, the optimum pattern of departure times will be restored, removing gaps in the current timetable which have been caused by the reduced tunnel capacity.

In addition, a new direct Ashford-Brussels service will begin on 23 February, having been delayed since last December by the tunnel incident.