Dartford Crossing - Again!
Discussion
It seems as though the tolls at the Dartford crossing are to rise to £2.50. So far from being scrapped altogether (as was supposed to happen in around 2000)they are increasing the tolls by quite a signicant amount.
What shocks me is `some' peoples willingness to accept this, some even suggesting that ANPR toll charging is the way to go!??? WRONG WRONG WRONG! the tolls should be taken away completely it is just a section of the M25 FFS!
If you went into a restaurent ordered a meal, and then paid the full menu price for it. you would be a little annoyed if the waiter then came up and said, `sorry we are going to charge you again for your meal, but not only that, we are going to charge you even MORE than you paid the first time. and........wait for it, we are going to give you absolutely NOTHING for all the extra money we will be charging you!'
I suspect that most of us would tell the waiter to go poke it, where the sun dont shine! but that is exactly what they are doing here, and yet there are some that dont see the iniquity of this.
If they said we are going to carry on charging you, but we will use the money to build a second crossing out to the East so that HGV`s (coming from the midlands / North etc) dont have to go all the way down to the M25 in order to get to the channel crossings, I suspect few would object to the tolls, But they are not doing this. Considering the motorist pays around £47 billion into the exchequer every year (only £4 billion of which gets spent on the roads from where the money comes) doesnt seem like a good deal for the motorists.
For sure the Government and toll operators might be making a bit of cash out of the tunnel, but what about the cost to UK PLC in terms of wasted time, wasted fuel, lost deliveries, lost meetings, lost flights, pollution etc? all down to the disgusting holds up caused by the toll booths every day. (funny how when the tolls went down owing to a computer glitch and they had to suspend the tolls, and keep the barriers ups, traffic in that area started flowing smoothly!!!??.)
Apologies rant over, but crossing is one thing that makes my blood boil.
Something seriously needs to change there and
What shocks me is `some' peoples willingness to accept this, some even suggesting that ANPR toll charging is the way to go!??? WRONG WRONG WRONG! the tolls should be taken away completely it is just a section of the M25 FFS!
If you went into a restaurent ordered a meal, and then paid the full menu price for it. you would be a little annoyed if the waiter then came up and said, `sorry we are going to charge you again for your meal, but not only that, we are going to charge you even MORE than you paid the first time. and........wait for it, we are going to give you absolutely NOTHING for all the extra money we will be charging you!'
I suspect that most of us would tell the waiter to go poke it, where the sun dont shine! but that is exactly what they are doing here, and yet there are some that dont see the iniquity of this.
If they said we are going to carry on charging you, but we will use the money to build a second crossing out to the East so that HGV`s (coming from the midlands / North etc) dont have to go all the way down to the M25 in order to get to the channel crossings, I suspect few would object to the tolls, But they are not doing this. Considering the motorist pays around £47 billion into the exchequer every year (only £4 billion of which gets spent on the roads from where the money comes) doesnt seem like a good deal for the motorists.
For sure the Government and toll operators might be making a bit of cash out of the tunnel, but what about the cost to UK PLC in terms of wasted time, wasted fuel, lost deliveries, lost meetings, lost flights, pollution etc? all down to the disgusting holds up caused by the toll booths every day. (funny how when the tolls went down owing to a computer glitch and they had to suspend the tolls, and keep the barriers ups, traffic in that area started flowing smoothly!!!??.)
Apologies rant over, but crossing is one thing that makes my blood boil.
Something seriously needs to change there and
The Dartford Crossing is not "a section of the M25". It is the A282 and merely links the two ends of the M25.
Pedant mode to "Off".
The Humber Bridge has been £2.70 per car crossing for yonks so the southern softies have had it good, yet again, for too long. However, it is a disgrace that we should be paying ANY tolls for major highway routes where there are no viable alternatives.
Pedant mode to "Off".
The Humber Bridge has been £2.70 per car crossing for yonks so the southern softies have had it good, yet again, for too long. However, it is a disgrace that we should be paying ANY tolls for major highway routes where there are no viable alternatives.
^^ But the differences with the Humber bridge are most people don't need to use it, unless they're are travelling from the Grimsby or Lincoln part of the country, as there is a perfectly good motorway alternative. Also I don't think it was promised that the charges would be dropped ten years after completion of the Humber bridge.
I agree we shouldn't be paying tolls anywhere but if the empty promise had not been made regarding the scrapping of charges at Dartford people would not be so reluctant to paying a toll when there is not a real viable alternative route.
I agree we shouldn't be paying tolls anywhere but if the empty promise had not been made regarding the scrapping of charges at Dartford people would not be so reluctant to paying a toll when there is not a real viable alternative route.
Edited by Larry Dickman on Friday 5th November 11:53
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