Angry passengers reported queuing for nearly two and a half hours last week – with some starting far outside the immigration hall – to be met with empty passport control desks and uninterested staff.
It’s not actually all that difficult to have people looking at passports at Heathrow. But it does seem to be beyond the wit of the modern bureaucracy.
And do not, for a moment, think that this is the only thing that is going to go wrong.
5 responses so far ↓
1 JamesV // Jul 2, 2012 at 9:10 am
Personally I blame Brussels meddling, forcing all that Schengen stuff on the UK. Oh, wait…
2 The Stigler // Jul 2, 2012 at 12:27 pm
The tube is where the “fun” is going to be.
We built the Olympics in about the worst place possible. Too close into London to make it easily accessible, but not close enough to a mainline station with lots of connections. Oh, and miles away from the people who can afford £200+ for a family day out.
3 NielsR // Jul 2, 2012 at 2:01 pm
And miles away from the posh hotels, on the wrong side of the perpetual traffic jam that is the West End.
4 Tim Newman // Jul 2, 2012 at 6:21 pm
I did a return journey on the Eurostar back in March. Immigration at the Paris end (staffed by Brits but organised by the French) was fairly quick. Immigration leaving London for Paris (staffed by Frogs, organised by Brits) involved some fat cow hollering at people for not queuing in the right place when the queue was so fucking huge it was spilling over into other areas and the whole thing was a clusterfuck almost of Nigerian proportions. All of this could have been solved by opening another desk, but I supposed it’s easier to blame the passengers instead.
5 JamesV // Jul 3, 2012 at 12:20 am
If you really have to enter the UK use the smallest airport you can find. London City, Southampton, and Aberdeen are all safe bets.
In fact it is probably quicker to change in Aberdeen than enter the UK at Deathrow.
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