What's the Dartford Crossing like at 7am these days?

[Grandad Gaz]

I've not been that way for about a year now.

I have to get down to Kent from Hertfordshire on Friday morning. If I leave home at 6am, I should be at the Bridge by 7am.

Will there be long queues at that time of day. If so, I could go later, but I don't want to get caught in the Friday afternoon traffic on the way home.

Thanks

[craigjm]

The toll booths have gone so the queuing is much less. You pay online now like the London congestion charge

[Desiato]

Coming South seems much better these days, but going North seems as bad as ever, especially on a Friday afternoon.

[Grandad Gaz]

Thanks

[craigjm]

Don't forget to log on and pay. Fines are stiff

[DaveEssex]

Went over the Bridge (Southbound of course) at exactly 7am this morning down to Orpington. and even for a short distance of 50mph through road works just prior to the Bridge, all was running smoothly at the appropriate speed limits from when I joined the M25, at the A12 junction, to when I left the M25 at Orpington. Absolutely no delays despite all lanes being full of traffic. Hope it is the same for you.

[Humpy D]

Whilst all of the above is true I have found the clockwise traffic yesterday and today (especially) worse than usual. Whether this is down to the A13 roadworks or people coming back from being away last week, I don't know.

Yesterday at c.8am the queue at junction 30 wasn't too bad and therefore didn't impact those crossing the bridge but today was a different story; queuing back to junction 29 and all lanes effected/slow.

You may also want to bear in mind that Friday is probably the last day of the Easter school holidays and whilst that may not have much of a bearing on the morning traffic I'm bracing myself for long queues at the tunnels in the evening.

[Red Devil]

Anti-clockwise was rammed solid at 3.45 this afternoon. I gave up on my intended journey across the river to Rainham.
Still not exactly free flowing two hours later - http://www.motorwaycameras.co.uk/viewcamera/?motor...
It's like that at some point almost every day now. The permanent roadworks on the A13 certainly aren't helping any.

[Red Devil]

Same time today: same problem.

Millions spent on removing the barriers and road 'improvements' and what do we get anti-clockwise? Same old

The A13 roadworks are doing their bit as well.

[craigjm]

I wonder how much extra revenue in fines they are collecting from people who forget to pay whilst not having to pay barrier staff

[Red Devil]

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/consumer-new...
The headline is just that: a headline. It lacks any verifiable source.
The text of the article only tells how many PCNs were issued.
Confirmed by this FoIA request
What it doesn't say is how many were actually paid.
And therefore how much money has been trousered.

[Grandad Gaz]

Well, it was a breeze this morning!

Over the bridge at 7:02am, all moving well. Then back through the tunnel at 9:40am, no hold ups at all. Wish all my days could be as easy as that!

I'm sure it still being the school easter holidays that helped.

Thanks for the advice, All.

[Red Devil]

It was a whole different story later in the day. Anti-clockwise gridlocked again at 2pm.
Plus these two subsequent accidents to cause even greater problems.

http://www.brentwoodgazette.co.uk/M25-shut-Dartfor...
http://www.brentwoodgazette.co.uk/Dartford-Crossin...

I went down to Bexhill later in the afternoon. When I got back around 5 hours later traffic was still crawling from J3.
Fortunately I live on the Kent side and have other ways of getting home without having to use the M25.

All it needs is a couple of idiots running into each other and everything goes tits up.