M25 Dartford Bridge / Tunnel

[SweetKingfisher1]

This is for all of you like us who use the M25 Dartford Bridge / Tunnel. As you may be aware the toll booths are being replaced with a congestion charge. The date has been put back from October to November.      

 

At the moment you pay when you cross good old father Thames, but from November you will be required to pay before you cross or you can pay up to the night time of the day you have traveled.

 

We have a Dart Tag it is a little unit we place on the car windscreen and is scanned once we are at the barrier.  When our account is getting low I make a phone call and put some more money in to my account.  

 

We travel over a couple times a mouth, with this we only pay £1.33, with each crossing instead of £2 ( big deal I know ).

 

So with the new system we can have an account and all we will need to do is give my car details, but not only mine I can put others onto my account like our daughter's car and if Alan want to, I could put his car also. Knowing Alan he would forget to pay  .

 

The web site for all details on this is: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dart-charge.

 

Once I hear from them regarding the date I will let you know. 

 

Regards

Marina   

[Polly]

Thanks Marina,

We cross daily often so this is very helpful information.

[donnygeoff]

What about us northeners who may use it once a year.....

 

Do we need to show our passports, or can we pay cash.....

 

Or should we just go the long way round.....

 

Or should we send the boys down first.....

 

Seriously, How will people who do not use it find out before they go, or do you get a letter (number plate recognition) saying you have gone over and need to pay...

 

[Matt]

What about those of us in the local residents scheme

[Samuel]

"What about us northeners who may use it once a year.....

 

Do we need to show our passports, or can we pay cash.....

 

Or should we just go the long way round.....

 

Or should we send the boys down first.....

 

Seriously, How will people who do not use it find out before they go, or do you get a letter (number plate recognition) saying you have gone over and need to pay..."

 

 

Same question as above to the OP. Having read through the link it seems occasional users of the M25 will still be able to pay in cash. How else could it be on a major motorway? Can anyone confirm?

[Samuel]

Sorry, read it all again and not sure if payment by cash is possible, 

I noticed that there are arrangements for 'evasion' charges. If so I would feel sorry for any foreign visitors who innocently drive down a non-toll motorway and later find out they have evaded a charge!

[Samuel]

Just checked elsewhere and I tend to agree with the AA on this issue:

 

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/cost-of-motoring/dartford-crossing-dart-charge.html

[Maxwellian]

Wish my mum would do the same. I remember the days when I used to keep the change as she never asked for it.....now she does it to me

[donnygeoff]

One-off payments

You can make one-off payments using the payment methods outlined at the top of this article. Payment can be made in advance or by midnight the day after crossing.

One of the payments is POST.....

So, if I cross on a Monday, come back across on the Tuesday, send a cheque for payment on the Wednesday morning, they will not get it before I get my evasion letter.....

And you think river tolls are bad.

I could always go over on an invalidity scooter cos they are exempt...

 

 

[grendel]

if you think thats bad, I have to go through / over twice a day to get to and from work, yes I have a dart tag, which will automatically carry over to an account. the way I see it is that it will work the same as the congestion zone in london, you go through, you pay. companies will be easier as they can just list all of the company vehicles on their account.

Grendel

[RumPunch]

The motorway round Dublin is a similar system. They have ANPR cameras, get the reg, you call in with credit / debit card and pay it

 

Simples

[MauriceMynah]

The toll booths that exist must need a considerable number of people there to maintain them, to assist motorists, to police the system and generally to be there to sort out problems.

The automated system being introduced will save vast quantities of both time and money.

I am totally confident that this saving will be passed on to the motorists by reducing the tolls charged.

 

 

[donnygeoff]

The plus side to all this is that (hopefully) it'll see an end to the queuing at the crossing, which can be a total nightmare at busy times.

But on the down side

The Le Mans start from the booths all trying to get into 2 or 3 lanes.

I liked doing that

 

:River Police

[SGWilko]

The plus side to all this is that (hopefully) it'll see an end to the queuing at the crossing, which can be a total nightmare at busy times.

I gather that initially the toll booths are being closed (or opened, depending on how you look at it) and then will be removed entirely next year, so traffic should flow much better.

 

It is rumoured that the recent spate of horrendous queues is a cynical purposful approach by the operators, so that when tolls are removed, the ease on congestion is 'chalk and cheese'

 

That and all the toll collectors on a reputed go slow....

 

 

We have to suffer our road stuffed up every evening by shortcutters avoiding the queues....

[Guest]

I'm very much obliged to Marina for posting this subject on here.

 

I dislike reading newspapers, (life can be sad enough without revelling in the journalistic sensationalism of it), so I had no idea of this very big change in the way the Dartford crossing is funded.

 

I don't recall seeing it on any TV news programmes so far.

 

I can't help thinking I would otherwise have faced  a £35 bill a few days after my next, (quite rare) trip down into Kent.

 

Unless the signage (at 70mph) gives very clear warnings of the fee and it's prompt payment requirement before receiving notification of it, I would have driven blissfully on.

 

I quite agree though about the big reduction in jams waiting at the toll booths.

[BroadScot]

This new system sounds very like what has been used in Austria and Northern Italy for a long time. It certainly speeds up things a bit there.

 

Iain.

[grendel]

The gantrys and cameras are already there, just as you are dropping down into the tunnel, and just before exiting the bridge.

if you keep abreast of the news for the crossing you will have spotted that the charges are indeed going to rise over the next few years (locals consider this a bit of a betrayal really as many years ago it was promised that when the tunnels had been paid for, they would become free of charge, then the bridge was built, and once again the same promise was given, then the crossing was sold to a private consortium, and all bets went out of the window. when you think about it the new system will be simpler, faster, and more convenient (rather than fumbling in your pocket to find change) but then again all the existing staff are going to lose their jobs, as they wont need people to man the toll booths.

For the road changes, eventually the booths will go, and be replaced by just 4 lanes of traffic, with an changeover set of lanes so that they can close the bridge in high winds and use one tunnel each way.

as you see here - blast cant seem to add a link - its 50p more for cars and vans and an extra £1 for lorries as soon as the new system comes in ( for the over 130,000 vehicles per day!!)  that's well over £ 1/2 million a day at the moment). the link is on .gov.uk .

still at least its still free overnight.

as for the queues, they have already dismantled the end two booths each way at the auto tolls, its just a metal frame at the moment (obviously preparing the way to open the road through the tolls) that was done earlier in the year.

Grendel

[SweetKingfisher1]

One other point to make regarding Blackwall Tunnel. They are saying to fund a new crossing over the Thames, Blackwall Tunnel could have a Toll  . So there is no getting away from paying to get over the Thames and to us locals we all know what it is like to get thought Blackwall on a good day  . 

 

So back to Dartford Bridge / Tunnel. The new company who you will be paying to is based in Leeds, not even local and yes all those working on the toll booths and in the office loss their jobs. Will we ever stop paying to travel over like we were told years ago?

 

All I can say is watch this space  . 

 

Regards

Marina     

[grendel]

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/355629/Dart_Charge_Table_for_web.pdf

strange I can post links from home - just not from work

Grendel

[grendel]

internet explorer, we are not allowed fancy software , plus the internet runs through a specialised firewall, that only allows us 30 minutes of non work related browsing, so that could also be stopping us posting links.

Grendel

[grendel]

quite probably, its not important as I just flick through at lunch times, I can always post links from home

Grendel

[BroadScot]

Its here Marina..... I think?

 

Iain

[SweetKingfisher1]

Not sure if any of you saw the EDP yesterday Saturday, also I have received my email regarding the new Dart-Charge. As from Sunday 30th November the new payment system come's into place      .

 

Regards

Marina  

[grendel]

just a heads up this morning there were signs saying night closures on the tunnel for the 29th and for the bridge on the 30th November.

I did eventually find my email to change over to the new system, as it had been bulk emailed my kind service provider had relegated it to the spam folder as junk, this was strange as a while back I had turned off the spam filter because of the amount of genuine mail it had been filtering, it seems as though when BT changed their email system a few months back they had turned the spam filter back on. I prefer to be able to receive the spam and filter it in outlook as that way I don't miss any important emails that the provider thinks are spam (and point proven I think)

Grendel

[grendel]

our company is still sorting out the dart charge, when one of the girls in the office emailed the person dealing with it in our leicester office, she was told, oh we'll sort it out Monday, we have an engineers meeting monday, all the engineers in the south east will be coming into the office just north of the tunnel, well we warned head office that everything needs to be in place by about 7am on monday or they will be getting letters and fines, the charge system wont deduct crossings by vehicles from the account if they cross before its set up will it.

Ah Sigh.

Grendel