Avoiding M25 delays - advice wanted

[BGarside]

Off on holiday a week on Friday and I need to drive from Somerset to Gravesend to catch a bus. So, going to have to use the M25 between Chertsey and Dartford. I have to reach Gravesend before 9pm and Google Maps suggests a 3h drive.

Not sure what time to travel to avoid getting stuck on the M25, which I never venture onto normally. Should I travel early or late?

Ta for any advice.

[Iva Barchetta]

M25 after about 7.30pm "should" be okay but TBH anything can happen.

The queue into the Dartford tunnel can start late morning and go on till well after 6pm too.

It's pure pot luck on how bad it is on a Friday.

One alternative would be to come off M25 at J3 for M20 and then use the A228 north at West Malling.

[BGarside]

Thanks. Leaving it late looks like too much of a gamble. Guess I'll take the day off work and arrive early instead...

[s p a c e m a n]

All bets are off on Fridays, you can be stationary from Sevenoaks or brake at the last minute for Dartford because you flew along at 80 all the way and forgot about the 50mph section

[BGarside]

Annoying to have to lose a day's pay just to make a 3 hour drive to get somewhere by 9pm!

[vikingaero]

BGarside said:

Annoying to have to lose a day's pay just to make a 3 hour drive to get somewhere by 9pm!

I had a look on Google Maps Traffic at 7pm last night and the M25 was backed up from the Dartford Crossing to halfway between J3-4 anticlockwise. You would have had to queue to get onto the A2 for Gravesend. The M26/M20 has been sticky for the past week and a half around that time. If the M25 is borked then consider leaving the M26 at J2a for Wrotham and follow the A20/A227 through Meopham to Gravesend.

[BGarside]

Thanks. Will probably travel early and get to Gravesend at lunchtime then have to kill some time in Gravesend...

[abbotsmike]

The other side is that all of the schools have broken up by then, so it could be relatively quiet....

Leave at lunchtime would be my recommendation.

[Terminator X]

Friday PM will be chaos, avoid it like the plague. Go mid morning imho and while away the hours when you arrive.

TX.

[Mr Tidy]

BGarside said:

Annoying to have to lose a day's pay just to make a 3 hour drive to get somewhere by 9pm!

Welcome to the over-crowded South East - at least you only have this issue once or twice a year! If you live here it may happen every day!

If the traffic is such an issue maybe you could fly from Bristol and save those of us in the South East some congestion at the same time!?

[Dingle Dell]

Indeed - but there are still a few green spaces, so lets make sure we build lots more houses there as well. After all, we all want to spend even more of our lives sitting in traffic.

[Iva Barchetta]

s p a c e m a n said:

All bets are off on Fridays, you can be stationary from Sevenoaks or brake at the last minute for Dartford because you flew along at 80 all the way and forgot about the 50mph section

From today's personal experience,very much this.

Queues building from 9am ,completely FUBAR by 10,now I'm in Essex,A13

FUBAR towards M25.
All roads in Purfleet.....FUBAR.

[PoleDriver]

Simples!

[Iva Barchetta]

Snapped this from my stopped point on the Purfleet slip.


A13,east bound.

It's going to get a lot worse by afternoon.