Le Shuttle Freight has confirmed its festive-period timetable, with reduced frequencies on 24–25 December and 31 December–1 January. Drivers are being urged to plan ahead, as overnight maintenance and lower Christmas services are expected to create longer waits at peak moments.
All times below are CET (France/Belgium time).
Christmas services (24–25 December)
24 December – Folkestone ↔ Calais
- 00:00–06:00: 1 departure/hr
- 06:00–19:00: 3 departures/hr
- 19:00–24:00: 2 departures/hr
25 December – Folkestone ↔ Calais
- 00:00–06:00: 1 departure/hr
- 06:00–19:00: 2 departures/hr
- 19:00–24:00: 1 departure/hr
Traffic on both sides of the Channel drops significantly on 25 December, reflected in the lowest frequencies of the whole festive period.
The detailed day-by-day schedule from 19 December 2025 to 6 January 2026 confirms these reduced patterns and shows hourly variations. For example, on 25 December, departures often fall to one per hour from 00:00–06:00 and again from 19:00 onwards in both directions, according to the freight timetable tables.
New Year services (31 December–1 January)
31 December – Folkestone ↔ Calais
- 00:00–06:00: 1 departure/hr
- 06:00–12:00: 2 departures/hr
- 12:00–19:00: 3 departures/hr1
- 19:00–24:00: 2 departures/hr
1 January – Folkestone ↔ Calais
- 00:00–12:00: 1 departure/hr
- 12:00–19:00: 2 departures/hr
- 19:00–24:00: 1 departure/hr
As with Christmas Day, New Year’s Day runs at minimum capacity in the first half of the day.
Overnight maintenance: 23 December–7 January
Overnight engineering works will also take place on six nights between 23 December and 7 January, with grinding operations running from 22:00 to 07:00 CET. Drivers should expect some disruption to loading flexibility during these hours.
This work is expected to limit flexibility. Although planned departures remain published, drivers should expect:
- occasional lane closures,
- longer loading/unloading times,
- short-notice operational changes.
Le Shuttle also stresses that all timings are subject to change, and real-time updates will be published in the Terminal Information section of their online services.
