Govt to adjust morning border traffic management after lengthy inbound queues

The Gibraltar Government said it will take steps to ease early-morning congestion at the border that led to hefty queues on Monday for two-wheeled traffic heading into Gibraltar.

The delays appear to have arisen after Spanish border officers conducted tight checks, leading to a build-up of motorbikes, bicycles and e-scooters that were then allowed to use a lane normally reserved for vehicles, as well as the lane reserved for two-wheeled traffic.

That created “an avalanche” on the Gibraltar side that was difficult for immigration officers to control.

“Borders and Coastguard Officers had the bike lane to enter Gibraltar open at 0700hrs this morning,” a spokesperson No.6 Convent Place told the Chronicle.

“The Government understands that at that time, Spanish authorities were checking all motorcycles, bicycles and scooters one by one. This caused severe congestion and a long queue.”

“The Government understands that Spanish authorities then used lane 1, usually used for cars, as an extension of the already congested bike lane, whilst this remained closed to motorcycles, bicycles and scooters on the Gibraltar side.”

“These were then allowed to avalanche into Gibraltar in a manner that was very difficult for BCA Officers to control.”

“In order to prevent congestion of this nature in the future, Borders and Coastguard Officers have been given instructions that the whole of lane 1 and not just the bike lane should be open to motorcycles, bicycles and scooters until 8:00am each morning, by which time the majority of the traffic entering Gibraltar should have passed.”

The government spokesperson noted too that there were “lengthy bike lane queues” to exit Gibraltar on Monday afternoon.