A perfect storm for passengers over the Christmas and New Year holiday as operators get their heads around new identity checks, the Calais migrant crisis threatens to spread and new emissions rules force up the price of – all – tickets.

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Cross-Channel passengers face three challenges this Christmas and New Year: new ‘exit check’ trials; the spread of the Calais migrant crisis, and increased fares due to new EU clean fuel rules. Photo @DriveEurope

Passengers crossing to the Continent might want to leave extra time over the Christmas and New Year period as operators experiment with new ‘exit checks’.

Time-consuming identity checks on travellers leaving the country are one of three challenges facing cross-Channel passengers into 2015.

The others are the risk of the Calais migrant crisis spreading, and all-round fare increases due to new regulations on ships’ emissions.

The first two had a detailed examination at last month’s UK Parliament Home Affairs Select Committee.

The British government wants to bring in exit checks in April to ‘make it much harder for offenders to flee British justice and to better identify those who are in the UK illegally.’

Operators told MPs they were unhappy that the onus was on them to design, set up, operate and pay for new IT systems to report the information, and about whether they could be ready in time.

There were also concerned about the impact on passenger through-flow at ports because of potentially long-winded enhanced checks.

Eurotunnel’s John Keefe told MPs trials would start in December. A tweet from @LeShuttle on Thursday said the exit check trial had now started.

@LeShuttle has also warned on several occasions since that ‘some passengers’ faced a thirty minute delay though it is not clear if this connected with the trial.

The UK Chamber of Shipping told MPs the Port of Dover would start its own trials in January.

The hearing also heard concerns that security fencing currently being installed around the main access roads in and out of Calais port – to keep attempted illegal immigrants away from queuing vehicles – would just displace the problem to other ports.

Earlier this week a Dutch transport union complained about ‘a wave of stowaways moving north via Zeebrugge in Belgium to Hoek van Holland near Rotterdam’ says DutchNews.nl.

Members of the Select Committee visited Calais earlier this month to see the situation for themselves. Their report will be published before Christmas.

Meanwhile, the European Commission has hit back at Daily Mail claims that new clean fuel regulations would see ferry fares rise by 30% in January.

From the beginning of 2015, shipping operators must use more expensive low-sulphur fuel in most EU waters.

The Commission said ‘the costings were based on far higher fuel prices than currently pertain’.

Freight customers have previously been told by at least two operators to expect rate rises of 15% next year.

However, Freightex said this week, ‘Although ferry rates will be going up in January due to EU sulphur emission regulations… we won’t be putting up prices in the New Year because the recent fall in fuel prices offsets the increase in ferry rates.’

Even if record low oil prices soften or absorb the costs of the new low-sulphur regulations in the short term, should ferry fares rise in the future Eurotunnel told @DriveEurope earlier this year it would also increase ticket prices to maintain its ‘premium pricing structure’.

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A Volvo FH ‘Globetrotter’ heading down the south side of the H2 Gotthard pass in Switzerland, towards Airolo. Photo from VolvoTrucksBrandStories.com

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The Scottish ‘weather bomb’ shows that maybe British weather isn’t as bad as everybody thinks.

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Photo @TrafficScotland

Everybody moans about the British weather and with good reason. It rains a lot. The temperature struggles to crack 25⁰C even at the height of summer.

But as yesterday’s ‘weather bomb’ in Scotland demonstrated, the British Isles suffer from less extreme conditions, less often, than the rest of Europe.

Winds might have hit 144mph on St Kilda but on the mainland, even at the height of the storm, gusts barely merited an amber warning according to the European Meteoalarm service, and even then only in the far northwest Highlands.

The most serious incident was a foreign truck driver who ‘ignored’ signs on the Forth Bridge and came to a halt in a panic.

Meanwhile, the whole of the northern Irish Republic was on amber alert for high winds all day, as were parts of Italy, Greece, Norway and Spain.

Amber alerts are serious business. People can and do die. Meteoalarm categorises them as ‘dangerous’ with ‘damage and casualties likely’. Red is ‘very dangerous’ with ‘major damage and accidents likely… and threat to life and limb’.

The last red alert warning for the UK was for high winds across the north west of England in March.

Red alerts are still relatively rare even on the Continent but most days somewhere is under an amber level warning.

Consider the Ligurian coast in northwest Italy. There was almost continuous amber and red level heavy rain for the whole of November with consequent landslides and major floods.

It was barely much better in the south west of France.

The point is not that Brits have boring weather, or that we should be grateful for the tepid climate, or that we over-react when things do go wrong.

The point is that Brits, maybe lulled into a false sense of security by a lifetime of ‘bad weather’, should be aware that elsewhere in Europe there is often much more to it than continuous drizzle or jumpers in June.

See the Meteoalarm website here.

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In total defiance of Italian cars’ reputation for fragile electrics, especially when wet, the headlights of this Ferrari F430 Spider continue on full beam despite being submerged in a village fish pond. The lone driver, single car incident occurred on the B83 at Wernberg, near Villach, south central Austria last night. The 36 year old driver, an engineer from Croatia, managed to swim to safety. Photo HRW Villach.

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Last updated 18:00GMT, Wednesday 10 December.

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TODAY: winds at Dover down to force 6 but still long delays to ferry services, except Dover-Dunkirk and MyFerryLink. Dover, Calais and Dunkirk all busy with freight traffic today.

Black ice warnings Vosges mountains, east France + A20 Limoges; A7 Hannover-Hildesheim. Flood emergency Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Snow above 500m French Alps + Pyrenees. Fresh snow H2/H19/H21 Gotthard south central Switzerland, H13 Locarno-Brissano still restricted by landslides at Lugano.

A20 access road into Eurotunnel UK is closed; use M20 junction 11a instead.

THIS WEEK: 24hr rail strike Belgium Thursday 11 December from 03:00; General strike Italy Friday 12 December; ADAC reports another strike at Port of Calais next Monday 15 December (not confirmed). Also, this week is the TISPOL pan-Europe anti-drink drive enforcement campaign.

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CHANNEL DELAYS: P&O Dover-Calais delay 120mins. Reduced service DFDS Dover-Calais until 4 January, currently 3h00 delay; Dover-Dunkirk 40mins. Tomorrow’s Amsterdam-Newcastle arrives 60min late at 10:00. Eurotunnel freight UK, busy, still 90mins wait before check-in.

Tomorrow’s Brittany Ferries Plymouth-Roscoff + St Malo sailings cancelled, weather. Cherbourg-Poole brought forward 2h to 16:00. LDLines Le Havre-Portsmouth leaves 30min early at 16:30. Two subsequent trips cancelled. Condor Ferries says it is watching weather forecasts for next 48 hours.

WEATHER ALERT: amber alert high winds Italy/Sardinia, Ireland, Germany + coasts: Spain, Holland, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, avalanche Norway + storm Greece.

WEATHER: cold + unsettled North. Showers South.

GOTTHARD TUNNEL: northbound queue 2km, delay 20mins (tunnel reopened after breakdown).

MONT BLANC TUNNEL: ‘traffic is fluent’.

MAJOR TRAFFIC DELAYS: A4 southbound into Strasbourg, accident, delay 60mins. A630 ring north Bordeaux road works clockwise, delay A63>A10 around 1h30.

R0 ring south Brussels, clockwise, accident Haut Ittre delay 45mins from Waterloo.

Earlier: now no delay E314 eastbound Leuven.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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Iceland: journalists attending the launch of the brand new Land Rover Discovery Sport this week were treated to the full force of an arctic winter storm. The Irish Times’ Michael McAleer wrote, ‘Far from the soft, wet and fluffy stuff that flutters down in Ireland every few years, this was like shards of icy glass being shot horizontally across the mountainside.’ It was so bad that vehicles had to be abandoned. Despite this, the Disco S has still been extremely well received, we’ve yet to read a bad review. Standard on all models (starting at £32,395 with cheaper versions to come) is a very family-and-friends-friendly seven seat layout, unique in the class.

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Last updated 18:00GMT, Tuesday 9 December.

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TODAY: 

SNOW/ICE: emergency declared Plovdiv, Bulgaria, flooding. still black ice warnings central south west France, around Poitiers. Some snow overnight Luxembourg, Benelux/Germany border. Snow above 500m parts of French Alps + Pyrenees. Fresh snow H2/H19/H21 Gotthard south central Switzerland, H13 Locarno-Brissano still restricted by landslides at Lugano.

A20 access road into Eurotunnel UK is closed; use M20 junction 11a instead. This week is the TISPOL pan-Europe anti-drink drive enforcement campaign.

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CHANNEL DELAYS: reduced service DFDS Dover-Calais until 4 January.

WEATHER ALERT: red alert ‘coastal event’ Costa Menorca. Amber alert high winds Spain (+snow/ice), Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia + heavy rain Italy, Sardinia, Sicily, Bulgaria, storm Greece + amber alert high winds Ireland, north Germany + now Estonia.

WEATHER: cold + unsettled North. Showers South.

GOTTHARD TUNNEL: no queues.

MONT BLANC TUNNEL: ‘traffic is fluent’.

MAJOR TRAFFIC DELAYS: A35 northbound Strasbourg, accident delay 1h10. N136 ring south Rennes, southbound, lane closed delay 45mins.

A44 eastbound to Dortmund, holdup at Witten delay 50mins. A7 southbound to Kassel, breakdown Bockenam delay 60mins. A8 southbound from Munich, road works, lane closed Holzkirchen delay 60mins.

Earlier: now no delay A54 southbound into Charleroi, A66 westbound at Wiesbaden

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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Riga’s iconic city signs have been restored to their former glory after a misstep by marketing types. Earlier this year, to celebrate the city becoming European Capital of Culture, the extended dot above the I – aka a macron – was replaced by a blue and white painted heart. The move went down badly with locals, especially since Valdis Celms – the graphic artist who designed the originals, installed in 1980 – was not consulted, or impressed. Despite the kerfuffle over the signs, the Latvian capital is rapidly gaining a reputation as a young, trendy city. According to Skyscanner last week, the ‘bohemian’ galleries and restaurants of Miera Lele – Peace Street – make Riga one of the world’s top twenty ‘hipster magnets’. Photo @DriveEurope

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Last updated 18:00GMT, Monday 8 December.

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TODAY: strike in Calais now finished. Services starting to get back to normal though inevitable backlog delays, Dover busy with freight traffic. Also, another general strike in Belgium, particularly in and around Brussels. Police were advising, ‘Don’t come to Brussels if you don’t have to’ but traffic was very light except for two blocked access roads into Brussels.

Difficult driving warnings – snow forecast overnight Luxembourg. Earlier snow/ice warnings for Sauerland and Siegerland in central/west Germany (and black ice A27 Bremen), and Sweden. Snow above 500m parts of French Alps. Still snow H2/H19 Gotthard south central Switzerland, H13 Locarno-Brissano still restricted by landslides at Lugano + ice A12 Vevey-Freiburg.

A20 access road into Eurotunnel UK is closed; use M20 junction 11a instead. This week is the TISPOL pan-Europe anti-drink drive enforcement campaign.

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CHANNEL DELAYS: reduced service DFDS Dover-Calais until 4 January. ‘Capacity protection measures’ Eurotunnel freight (60min delay UK). Bad weather delay Condor, Guernsey-Jersey.

WEATHER ALERT: amber alert snow/ice north east Spain, north west Italy, high winds Sicily, south Italy + storm Greece.

WEATHER: cold. Gales, heavy showers Mediterranean. Snow Balkans.

GOTTHARD TUNNEL: southbound queue increased to 6km, delay 60mins.

MONT BLANC TUNNEL: ‘traffic is fluent’.

MAJOR TRAFFIC DELAYS: A15 westbound from Paris, accident Pontoise, delay 50mins.

A50 northbound Nijmegen, accident, delay 1h10.

A5 both ways Freiburg, accident, delay northbound 2h10; southbound 25mins.

A22 southbound Bolzano-Verona, heavy traffic, total delay still around 3h00.

Earlier: now no delay A1 southbound from Cologne, A3 eastbound Frankfurt. A5 southbound to Turin, heavy traffic, total delay down to 25mins.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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DIESEL BANNED FROM PARIS

Oil burning cars get most the blame – but not all – for Paris pollution.

Champs Elysee, Paris. Photo via @Paris.

PARIS: the most polluting vehicles will be banned by the end of the decade in a bid to improve air quality.

In a widely reported interview with Journal du Dimanche yesterday, new mayor Anne Hidalgo fleshed out commitments made during this years’ election campaign and ‘pollution crises’.

‘I want to be effective, fast and hard,’ she said. ‘Pollution is a major issue, a major public health problem, particularly for the most vulnerable… the message is clear: I want the end of the diesel engine in Paris.’

As well as banning diesel cars, at least within the peripherique ring road, only ULEV ‘ultra-low emission vehicles’ will be allowed on major thoroughfares such as the Champs Elysee; the 30% of trucks which cross the Paris region without stopping will be barred; only residents’ cars will be allowed inside the first to the fourth Arrondissement neighbourhoods while the general speed limit will be lowered to 30kmh (and to 50kmh on main roads).

The plans will be presented formally to the Council of Paris (Conseil de Paris) on 9 February.

This is in addition to plans announced last weekend by Prime Minister Manuel Valls. He wants to rebalance the split between diesel and petrol powered vehicles nationwide through narrowing the tax differential between the two, which currently favours diesel, and introduce new emissions classes ‘the grey card’ (La Carte Grise) as the basis on which to restrict vehicle movements in towns and cities across France.

In less widely reported news, last week Paris also announced plans to ban open fires from 1 January. Official figures say wood-burning makes up just under a quarter of the damaging fine particle emissions (the same as cars) with open fires responsible for half of that.

Clean air campaigners however say just four percent of such emissions come from wood burning.

Update 9 December: environment minister Segolene Royal said today the plan to ban open fires is ‘absurd, albeit well-intentioned’ and that she will overturn it according to The Connexion. Mayor Hidalgo is yet to respond though thelocal.fr says she is unlikely to take kindly to Royal meddling in her city’s business.

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There was snow and ice to the north and south this weekend but on Saturday evening central Denmark bathed in winter sunshine. Storebaelt Bridge might

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Last updated 18:30GMT, Sunday 7 December.

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TODAY: potential strike action in Calais tomorrow (Monday), 08:00-18:00. The port is intending to keep some ferry berths open but customers are advised to travel outside of strike hours. P&O says day trippers should postpone trips. See Port of Dover website for more. Also, another general strike in Belgium, particularly in and around Brussels, and probably even larger scale than previously. Police advising, ‘Don’t come to Brussels if you don’t have to’.

Also, driving conditions alerts for the Sauerland and Siegerland in central/west Germany (and A3 Oberhausen, see below), and west and north Sweden. A20 access road into Eurotunnel UK is closed; use M20 junction 11a instead. Heavy snow at altitude across Spain yesterday. Continuing poor driving conditions fog/snow central Massif Central, France affecting A75 south from around St Flour (see webcam here). ‘Hazardous’ driving in Finland this weekend. Still snow H2/H19 Gotthard south central Switzerland + H13 Locarno-Brissano still restricted by landslides at Lugano.

See below for Weekend Traffic and Weather forecasts, this week so far, and a look ahead.

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CHANNEL DELAYS: reduced service DFDS Dover-Calais until 4 January.

WEATHER ALERT: amber alert high winds, storm, heavy rain Italy, Sicily, west Estonia + storm Greece.

WEATHER: best Iberia. Snow Austria, East + parts Scandinavia. Wind, rain Mediterranean. See weekend outlook below.

GOTTHARD TUNNEL: now no queues.

MONT BLANC TUNNEL: ‘traffic is fluent’.

MAJOR TRAFFIC DELAYS: A1 southbound into Paris, earlier breakdown, accident, delay still 45mins.

A3 both ways Arnhem-Oberhausen, black ice warning.

Earlier: A4 westbound into Paris, heavy traffic, delay down to 25mins. A58 westbound Breda, earlier accident, delay down to 5mins + southbound A27 delay down to 15mins.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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The 2015 Andros Ice Racing Trophy kicked off yesterday at Val Thorens in the French Alps. Guest star of the two day meet is nine time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb, alongside series regular and former F1 driver Olivier Panis. Both struggle however against four time recent championship winner Jean-Philippe Dayraut who qualified on pole and won the opening race. Panis was third and Loeb seventh. Competing manufacturers include Mazda, Mini, Citroen DS, Renault, Toyota and Dacia. The seven date championship pretty much covers France’s mountainous regions. It calls next in Andorra then Alpe d’Huez, Isola 2000, Lans en Vercors and Clermont Ferrand before the finale at Saint Die des Vosges on 7 February. For more, including live coverage, see TropheeAndros.com

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WEEKEND TRAFFIC: city centres will be busy with Christmas markets but in general there are no traffic warnings this weekend, except: six autobahn closures in Germany: Friday night-Sunday night, A5 at Heidelberg and A24 at Reinbeck (Hamburg); from early Saturday to early Monday, A8 at Mulhausen (direction Munich); Saturday night-Sunday night A40 at Venlo, and early Saturday to Monday afternoon A46 at Dusseldorf.

WEEKEND WEATHER: the outlook according to BBC Weather is mixed: continuing severe storms for the central Mediterranean/Italy/Adriatic, sub-zero East, sunny South West plus snow on high elevations UK and Scandinavia. Due to likely icy conditions, M+S marked winter tyres will be needed in Germany and Austria.

THIS WEEK: heavy overnight snow around Huesca, Pyrenees on Thursday (+ poor/great weekend weather Spain). Fatal floods south of Rome Thursday + floods Thessaloniki region Greece; Kapitan-Andreevo border crossing Bulgaria-Turkey closed (now re-opened but severe flooding nearby). Severe ice warnings Central>East Europe, especially around Saarbrucken/Eifel Mountains and east Germany. Czech Republic badly affected by snow/ice this week, as was eastern Austria with evacuations and road closures in Hohe Wand, Lower Austria and Burgenland, due to ‘ice storm’.

LOOKING AHEAD: TISPOL pan-Europe anti-drink drive enforcement campaign next week; on Monday the Montenegro parliament votes on the Bar-Boljare motorway project – the country’s first – part of an eventual link between Belgrade and the Adriatic.

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Last updated 18:00GMT, Saturday 6 December.

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TODAY: busy earlier into Dover, long freight queues, now free-flowing. The A20 access road into Eurotunnel UK is closed; use M20 junction 11a instead. Continuing quite heavy snow Massif Central, France, on A75 south from around St Flour (see webcam here). ‘Hazardous’ driving in Finland today. Still snow H2/H19 Gotthard south central Switzerland + H13 Locarno-Brissano still restricted by landslides at Lugano. Also, more evacuations yesterday and road closures in Hohe Wand, Lower Austria and Burgenland, all eastern Austria, due to worsening ‘ice storm’.

See below for Weekend Traffic and Weather forecasts, this week so far and a look ahead.

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CHANNEL DELAYS: reduced service DFDS Dover-Calais until 4 January.

WEATHER ALERT: amber alert high winds Norway, storm Italy/Sardinia, coastal event north east Spain.

WEATHER: rain North, showery Mediterranean. See weekend outlook below.

GOTTHARD TUNNEL: now no queues.

MONT BLANC TUNNEL: ‘traffic is fluent’.

MAJOR TRAFFIC DELAYS: A8 westbound Salzburg-Munich, accident closed at Traunstein, delay 45mins+.

Earlier: now no delay A1 southbound from Amsterdam.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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In the nick of time, Condor’s trick new ship has started the long journey to the UK. On Thursday morning it left the manufacturer’s base in Cebu, Philippines, as eastern parts of the country braced ahead of Typhoon Hagupit. The as-yet-to-be-finally-named ‘102’ is currently crossing the Indian Ocean heading for the Suez Canal and Mediterranean (see map below). Actually the journey started before that, from Henderson near Perth in Western Australia where it was built by Austal. This final leg, crewed by Condor staff, will take four weeks and cover 10,500 nautical miles. After the ship’s finishing touches are applied by Trimline in Southampton, and more sea trials, 102 will sail between Poole and the Channel Islands from March. It has already broken booking records: more than 100 bookings per hour were taken on Friday 28 November according to the company. Photo courtesy of Austal.com.

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WEEKEND TRAFFIC: city centres will be busy with Christmas markets but in general there are no traffic warnings this weekend, except: six autobahn closures in Germany: Friday night-Sunday night, A5 at Heidelberg and A24 at Reinbeck (Hamburg); from early Saturday to early Monday, A8 at Mulhausen (direction Munich); Saturday night-Sunday night A40 at Venlo, and early Saturday to Monday afternoon A46 at Dusseldorf. Also, the B182 Brenner Pass in Austria is closed both ways Saturday 15:00-23:00, Matrei-Schoenberg, for an Advent event.

WEEKEND WEATHER: the outlook according to BBC Weather is mixed: continuing severe storms for the central Mediterranean/Italy/Adriatic, sub-zero East, sunny South West plus snow on high elevations UK and Scandinavia. Due to likely icy conditions, M+S marked winter tyres will be needed in Germany and Austria.

THIS WEEK: heavy overnight around Huesca, Pyrenees on Thursday (+ poor/great weekend weather Spain). Fatal floods south of Rome Thursday + floods Thessaloniki region Greece; Kapitan-Andreevo border crossing Bulgaria-Turkey closed (now re-opened but severe flooding nearby). Severe ice warnings Central>East Europe, especially around Saarbrucken/Eifel Mountains and east Germany. Czech Republic badly affected by snow/ice this week.

LOOKING AHEAD: a heads-up on Belgium’s next general strike on Monday; TISPOL pan-Europe anti-drink drive enforcement campaign next week; on Monday the Montenegro parliament votes on the Bar-Boljare motorway project – the country’s first – part of an eventual link between Belgrade and the Adriatic.

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Not un-controversially, Scotland lowers its drink driving limit today; bans will apply to the whole of the UK.

British parliamentarians visit Calais to see the migrant crisis at first hand. Fresh impetus to build Crimea’s vital Kerch crossing. The EU funds a start-up hydrogen refuelling network in northern Europe.

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Scotland lowered its drink drive limit at midnight, to 50mg per 100ml of blood (from 80mg). For an average man that’s less than a pint of regular beer (or a large glass of wine) says the BBC. For women it’s around half of that. Controversially, any British driver who falls foul will be banned for a minimum of twelve months in the whole of the UK, even if they live outside Scotland, and tested under 80mg..

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roundup: CRIMEA. Construction of the Kerch Bridge from the Russian mainland must start next year says Russian pm Dmitry Medvedev today. As well as cutting down on the notorious queues, ‘Crimea needs to feel that it is an integral part of a big and powerful country,’ he says quoted by QHAY, Crimea News Agency. There is currently no land connection between Russia and Crimea; we have previously speculated that the on-off fortunes of the technically very difficult Kerch crossing ebb and flow with the fortunes of the ‘rebel’ war in eastern Ukraine. CALAIS MIGRANTS. As promised during its recent hearing, members of the Home Affairs Select Committee are visiting Calais today, for the first time, to see situation for themselves. HYDROGEN. The EU is funding a €3.5m study into implementing hydrogen fuel stations for fuel-cell cars in Belgium, Finland, Poland and Riga, Latvia, and ‘deploy and test’ three hydrogen filling stations in Finland and Sweden. Set to conclude next December. This is part two of the HIT (Hydrogen Infrastructure for Transport) project, the first part of which is a 1000km chain of three filling stations between Gothenburg in Sweden and Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

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Last updated 18:15GMT, Thursday 4 December.

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TODAY: traffic busy into Dover. Queues lessening Eurotunnel freight France (car passengers diverted to J39 on A16 motorway). Also, long freight delays earlier into Dunkirk.

Fatal floods south of Rome. Floods Thessaloniki region Greece; Kapitan-Andreevo border crossing Bulgaria-Turkey closed (drivers advised to divert Harmanli-Elhovo-Lesovo instead). Evacuations in Hohe Wand and military vehicles deployed in Burgenland, both eastern Austria, due to ‘ice storm’ with weather unlikely to improve for next few days. Still ice warnings Central>East Europe (but improving), around Saarbrucken/Eifel Mountains and east Germany. Czech Republic badly affected by snow/ice past few days. Snow yesterday Pyrenees, Swiss Alps (currently snow H2/H19 Gotthard. H13 Locarno-Brissano still restricted by landslides at Lugano) and heavy sleet Austria/Italy/Slovenia border.

LOOKING AHEAD: intensive rainfall parts of Bosnia tomorrow; a heads-up on Belgium’s next general strike on Monday; poor weekend weather Spain; early rush hour Holland from 15:00 on Friday for St Nicholas holiday.

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CHANNEL DELAYS: reduced service DFDS Dover-Calais until 4 January, currently delayed 2h30. Eurotunnel freight France, busy, wait before check-in down to 30mins.

WEATHER ALERT: no red or amber alerts: yellow for ice Central, rain South.

WEATHER: rain Mediterranean, cold North.

GOTTHARD TUNNEL: no queues.

MONT BLANC TUNNEL: ‘traffic is fluent’.

MAJOR TRAFFIC DELAYS: A86 ring south west Paris, accident Chantenay delay 60mins.

A13 westbound into Antwerp, accident Wommelgem, delay down to 1h15 + A21 inbound delay 55mins.

A44 eastbound Dortmund-Kassel, accident Buren, delay 60mins. A661 southbound into Frankfurt, incident Main, delay 60mins. A66 eastbound Frankfurt-Fulda, accident Bad Orb delay 55mins.

Earlier: now no delay A12 eastbound from Den Haag, A4 both ways Aachen-Cologne, A2 westbound Magdeburg, A5 northbound Basel-Karlsruhe, A8 eastbound to Ulm. A7 northbound to Wurzburg, road works Ellwangen, delay down to 30mins. A1 northbound into Lausanne, earlier breakdown, lane blocked, delay down to 30mins.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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James Bond’s new car: Aston Martin DB10. Not expected on real-life roads until 2016 – and then only a strictly limited run of ten will be produced – but DB10 will be in cinemas next November, co-star of Spectre, aka ‘Bond 24’, the twenty fourth film in the James Bond franchise. Notable locations will include Solden in south west Austria, on the B186 down to the Italian border via the fearsome 2474m Timmelsjoch Pass. The news comes a day after it was revealed that five Range Rovers, also intended for Spectre, had been stolen from Jaguar Land Rover’s training base in Neuss, west Germany. Buyers should be beware: the specially prepared stunt vehicles have front suspension which is designed to collapse and easy-shatter windscreens.

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roundup: CZECH REPUBLIC. Eyebrows raised as the head of one of the country’s largest construction companies is appointed Minister of Transport. Dan Tok, former head of Skanska for CR and Slovakia, will be the tenth TranMin in less than six years. In a statement Skanska praised Tok’s commitment to business ethics and transparency. His tasks include building a high speed rail network, kick-starting motorway construction and appointing a new road tolls operator. FINLAND-RUSSIA. A new mandatory pre-booking system for crossing the Russian border at Vaalimaa – the main route between Helsinki and St Petersburg – goes live for trucks on 15 December (bookings open now) and on 19 January for cars (live on 5 January). The aim is to reduce congestion at peak hours. Booking can be done in advance over the internet or at ‘live queue’ terminals in the vicinity or nearby ports. See evpa.fi for more.

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