Dartford toll road axes booths

[soad]

Millions of motorists face being fined as Dartford toll road axes booths and forces drivers to pay online

Drivers will be fined £105 if they fail to pay £2.50 fee online or over phone!

[zeduffman]

Don't ignore the fine and it'll only be £35.

Drive with your eyes open and it'll be £2.50.

Still a scam but it's not like we're not used to a toll there.

[Terminator X]

Wasn't the Dartford toll supposed to be temporary

"It was anticipated that the tolls would be removed on 1 April 2003 under the original PFI scheme contract. However, the Highways Agency decided that the tolls would become a "charge", under a charging scheme under powers introduced by the Transport Act 2000 to introduce charging schemes on any trunk road bridge or tunnel at least 600 metres (2,000 ft) in length"

TX.

[NiceCupOfTea]

So it's going up again then? It was £2 on Monday.

[rallycross]

Why do we have to pay to go over a small bridge?

[BritishRacinGrin]

So the booths are gone and with them the staff who manned them. The toll is the same as ever. Dosens more people without jobs, more money in the coffers of whoever runs the bridge, same end cost to the general public who have already paid for the bridge at least once. Ridiculous.

[croyde]

So will all the traffic jams that stretch on every day, disappear?

[soad]

rallycross said:

Why do we have to pay to go over a small bridge?

No charge for bicycles and motorbikes. Other users - kerching!

croyde said:

So will all the traffic jams that stretch on every day, disappear?

We'll see?

[markiii]

hmm no charge for motorbikes, would imply they only use forward facing cameras?

[soad]

markiii said:

hmm no charge for motorbikes, would imply they only use forward facing cameras?

Most councils offer free parking for bikes too.

[NiceCupOfTea]

BritishRacinGrin said:

So the booths are gone and with them the staff who manned them. The toll is the same as ever. Dosens more people without jobs, more money in the coffers of whoever runs the bridge, same end cost to the general public who have already paid for the bridge at least once. Ridiculous.

No it's not, it's 25% higher. At the same time as they stop having to pay all the toll booth operators...

[Far Cough]

Register for prepay which is really easy and you get a third off each time which for a car takes it down to £1.87. So infact a decrease in the toll.

Its all happening on 30th Nov ( apparently ) and barriers will be gone and hence so should the congestion ( haha ). I wonder how long it will take them to realise that the ANPR cameras wont be able to see the numberplates when everyone is nose to tail.

[Red Devil]

NiceCupOfTea said:

BritishRacinGrin said:

So the booths are gone and with them the staff who manned them. The toll is the same as ever. Dosens more people without jobs, more money in the coffers of whoever runs the bridge, same end cost to the general public who have already paid for the bridge at least once. Ridiculous.

No it's not, it's 25% higher. At the same time as they stop having to pay all the toll booth operators...

It's going up to fund the £367 million tolling contract that is lining the pockets of a French company.
Société des Autoroutes du Nord et de l'Est de la France.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9_des...

SANEF is controlled by a consortium - Holding de Infraestructures de Transport SAS (HIT)
The majority shareholder is the Spanish conglomerate Abertis which also ultimately controls Luton and Belfast airports.
http://www.abertis.com/news/hit-the-consortium-led...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abertis

I don't think people realise how much of our infrastructure and utilities are controlled by European entities.
For example Électricité de France S.A. (EDF) which is owned by the French government.
The biggest player in nuclear power generation which accounts for 20% of our capacity.

All this talk by Dave about having a referendum on leaving the EU is a load of
If they were minded to the French could simply pull the plug - literally.

Regular users of the crossing with any sense will already have a Dart Tag.
Those accounts will be switched to the new Dart Charge equivalent.

It remains to be seen whether there will still be an office at the crossing.
If not it's going to be a right PITA for local residents in Dartford/Thurrock having to deal with one miles way in Leeds.
Yet another example of making life as difficult as possible for people to sort out any queries/issues.

It's the occasional and one-off folk who are likely to get caught out.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dart-charge-dar...
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/dartford/news/date-set...

Edited by Red Devil on Saturday 8th November 17:57

[SydneyBridge]

So how much profit will this actually make by the time the toll operator gets paid and all the fines get chased?
And did all the toll booth staff get made redundant?

[vrsmxtb]

Far Cough said:

Register for prepay which is really easy and you get a third off each time which for a car takes it down to £1.87. So infact a decrease in the toll.

Its all happening on 30th Nov ( apparently ) and barriers will be gone and hence so should the congestion ( haha ). I wonder how long it will take them to realise that the ANPR cameras wont be able to see the numberplates when everyone is nose to tail.

What about the Dart tag system? Is that going? At the moment it's something like £1.33 so it's a 50p increase on a "loyalty/discount" rate however you look at it.

[Far Cough]

vrsmxtb said:

What about the Dart tag system? Is that going? At the moment it's something like £1.33 so it's a 50p increase on a "loyalty/discount" rate however you look at it.

As mentioned above , the existing dart tag accounts will automatically be switched over to a dart charge account.

[jagracer]

Far Cough said:

As mentioned above , the existing dart tag accounts will automatically be switched over to a dart charge account.

I'm hoping I can put more than one car on the account as we currently swap the one tag between all our cars.

[Far Cough]

jagracer said:

'm hoping I can put more than one car on the account as we currently swap the one tag between all our cars.

Yep... I've added 2 on a personal account. I couldn't find anywhere what the limit was. Its pretty easy online and you can add or remove very simply. They do a company account to and on the face of it I couldn't see any difference other than the account is in a company name rather than your own. Maybe you can add more vehicles with one of those ??

[jagracer]

Far Cough said:

jagracer said:

'm hoping I can put more than one car on the account as we currently swap the one tag between all our cars.

Yep... I've added 2 on a personal account. I couldn't find anywhere what the limit was. Its pretty easy online and you can add or remove very simply. They do a company account to and on the face of it I couldn't see any difference other than the account is in a company name rather than your own. Maybe you can add more vehicles with one of those ??

I tried yesterday but it looks like I have to wait for an official letter from them with a verification code before I can transfer my account.

[Bob Upundown]

Yes wait for am email or letter. Be careful as it asks for the main vehicle the tag is in, so if you use one tag in a couple of cars put the main one down as it still seems these are going to still need to be displayed in the vehicle, or that's the way I read it. Once registered then you can add extra vehicles. It nice they give you a discount after you pay upfront, at least the congestion charge you pay £10 a year and get £1 off each time you go into it and they bill your credit card only when you enter. Presume the price hike is to cover the cost of foreign registered vehicles
who will not pay toll or fine.