Latest update 19:00 UK time.
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Travel: P&O + DFDS Dover-Calais delays.
Weather: hot and sunny apart Italy and Poland, see below.
Traffic: see @DriveEurope on Twitter.
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News: Italy petrol station strike 16-19 July – Charity drives update – Rush even slower to release – NL garages in EV legal action
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Italy: SS85 on Monte Secchieta between Florence and Arezzo. Incredible, occasional, panoramic glimpses of the Tuscan countryside. The road’s not bad either. Milton wrote Paradise Lost up here.
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TRAVEL/WEATHER:
Meteoalarm weather alerts – no Red alerts but Amber alerts for storms north west Spain and west and south central Austria.
Weather in brief – another very warm day across Europe and the Mediterranean but with some heavy showers in Italy, mainly north, and it continues to be unsettled in Poland/Belarus/west Ukraine.
Crossing the Channel: P&O Dover-Calais – ‘Due to an earlier technical problem with a loading berth in Calais port, some of our sailings are up to 50 minutes late. Check-in as normal.’
DFDS Dover-Calais – ‘We regret to advise the following departures on our Dover Calais services are operating with delays of up to 50 minutes due to port movements – Departing Dover at 1915 and 2115. Departing Calais at 2000 and 2300.’
Brittany Ferries’ via Tweet: ‘We’re sorry, today’s 1600 sailing [from Portsmouth] to Cherbourg is delayed by c.45 minutes due to the ship taking part in a rescue operation in the Channel.’
No other operators currently reporting any delays.
From @Port_of_Dover today: ‘Here in Dover sea conditions in the Channel are calm with an Easterly light airs force 1 and the visibility is good.’
Latest @CF_travel_news forecast: ‘The current forecast indicates slight sea conditions [for the weekend].’
See our Traffic/Travel/Weather page for the latest.
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NEWSLOG:
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Italy – from 22:00 local time on 16 July (Tuesday) to 06:00 on 19 July (Friday), filling stations on motorways, city ring roads and main city junctions will be on strike reports ANSA news agency. More details on Monday.
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Charity drives: The Travel Trade Crusade (#ttc13) made it to Metz in eastern France last night – even poor Outrider who returned to the UK part way for repairs. They are off to the Nurburgring today. Meanwhile, The Monte Carlo or Bust Rally (#MCoBRally), after assembling in St Quentin first thing made it to, well, we’re not quite sure.. Anyway they stopped at Reims race track on the way. Today they are heading Dijon-Geneva-San Bernardino Pass to Turin, Italy. McoB is run in aid of the DL Children’s Hospice, see www.montecarloorbust.eu for more while www.traveltradecrusade.com has a target to raise £50,000 for a number of charities.
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Rush the Movie – the highly anticipated, hugely hyped, extremely well received by those-lucky-enough-to-have-seen-it Rush – about the 1976 Grand Prix season – has had its release date put back by a week. It now comes out on 27 September. Director Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) tweeted the news last night but he didn’t say why the release has been delayed, or whether the UK debut is affected too. It’s incredibly frustrating for those people – i.e. us – who thought the four month run up was already way over the top.
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It doesn’t look like Fastned is planning to open many shops at its filling stations.
Netherlands/EVs – an intriguing twist on the imminent Dutch national fast charging network. A deal was announced last week to put all citizens within 50km of a fastcharge station by 2015 (see Fastned) but owners of traditional filling stations have taken exception according to Greencarreports.com (via Nos.nl). The row centres on whether electricity is fuel as such and subject to the same regulations as regular petrol stations, and whether fastcharging points will also open shops and pinch business. Even if this legal action doesn’t ultimately prevent Fastned it could slow it down at a critical stage in its development, with who knows what consequences for EVs in the long term. Dastardly!
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NOTES:
Luxembourg – more weekend road closures on the A4, between Luxembourg city and the French border south east. Resurfacing works on the Lux city-bound carriageway. Diversions in place.
Turkey – after some time without protests the situation is tense again. See latest FCO travel advice.
Bulgaria – anti-govt demonstrations becoming a permanent feature. The British Embassy says, ‘There is a small risk of violence. Avoid large gatherings in public spaces and follow local media and the advice of the local authorities.’ For the latest FCO travel advice click here. For Bulgarian news in English see www.Novinite.com or @novinite_com on Twitter.
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