Dartford Crossing will become toll-free at night in January 2008, but toll charges are to rise, under new DfT plans. The free period is defined as 22.00 to 06.00 hours. The planned new charges are:
Cars £1.50
Two axle goods £2.00
Multi axle goods £4.00
Tag Charge:
Cars £1.00
Two axle goods £1.75
Multi axle goods £3.20
Dartford Crossing tolls are a way of managing demand. The crossing would be busier without
the tolls, the DfT says. In 2004/5, lorries made 6.2 million trips, vans made 8.1 million and cars made 39.5 million. But the proposal has met with an angry response from the FTA, which calls the price increases a "half-baked attempt at road pricing". It says: "Stopping fast-moving traffic on a vital motorway to collect a toll is daft."
