Reply to: ******* Dartford Crossing!

[AtW]

It's the trial of toll motorways ...

[fullyautomatix]

I use this every day, you can register online and set an auto top up of 10 quids at a time. The payment through an online account is 1.67 per crossing.

[NickFitz]

FoI request shows that SimonMac may not be one in a million, but he is one in 953,067: https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...8_Redacted.pdf

[TykeMerc]

Figures from Highways England reveal that, in the first seven months since the system was introduced in November 2014, 950,000 penalty charge notices (PCNs) had been issued as of June 20 for non-payment.

Chief adjudicator Caroline Sheppard told Fleet News that she believed the sending of warning letters, which give drivers 14 days to pay the fee and have the PCN cancelled, had “successfully stemmed a potential tidal wave of appeals”.

From the sounds of it they have been busy bunnies fining people, but they have already started writing to people so they pay the fee instead of a fine.

I can't recall the last time I used either Dartford crossing so I didn't know they'd binned the toll booths.

[SpontaneousOrder]

Presumably they expect you to read detailed instructions as to how to pay whilst driving at 70mph.

I had no idea this was the case; not that I ever go that way.

It's worse than that - they just say DartPay - look us up on the web (which I didn't see at the time as I was too busy looking at the thousand cars all playing whacky races when the white lines evaporate as all those lanes merge).

Only reason I didn't get caught out recently was because I happened to mention to my dad that evening (luckily i saw him) that the booths were gone but I saw a big rec C over the road. I thought it was the congestion charge all the way out to dartford!

At the very least I feel like invoicing them for the 20 minutes I spent on the web trying to figure out what it was all about and how to pay.

[woohoo]

There used to be a fellow who would row you across the Manchester Ship Canal for a penny - there was a footpath there with some covenant on it hence the boat.

Wonder if it's still there - was in 70's - near Irlam I think.....

nah he has gone, if its the same bloke. The missus talks about it occasionally. There is a toll bridge further down, you pay 12p to go across by car. Occasionally they are in the news for forcing funeral processions to pay up.

[NotAllThere]

Let me google that for you

So the idea is that people will see a sign saying "Dart Charge". They'll then wonder what that is, so google it - and then they'll discover that there's a toll at the Dartford Crossing?

Perhaps if they simply stated "Dartford Crossing Toll" it would be just a little less complicated.

Let me google that for you

[stek]

There used to be a fellow who would row you across the Manchester Ship Canal for a penny - there was a footpath there with some covenant on it hence the boat.

Wonder if it's still there - was in 70's - near Irlam I think.....

[xoggoth]

Haven't been over it for a while but what really pissed me off was my little white van being charged more than damn great 4x4s that were far bigger and heavier.

[MicrosoftBob]

Of course the elephant in the room is that charges on the Dartford bridge were only meant to be temporary, and it's funding was based on the premise that once the costs of building the bridge were met the toll charge would be removed

[original PM]

this one

Linky

Seems to be the subject of much frustration for the locals!

[VectraMan]

Swinford Toll Bridge near here costs only 5p. They sold it a few years ago for over £1m.

BBC News - Toll bridge bought for over £1m

And the owners don't have to pay tax.

[DaveB]

Whitchurch Bridge :: Home

It's 60p now

40p for the Dunham Bridge, but free for bikes

[mudskipper]

There's a 20p toll at Whitchurch, but it's free on a bike

Whitchurch Bridge :: Home

It's 60p now

[mudskipper]

We don't have enough toll roads to make it worth while?

Dartford Crossing, M6 Toll and Severn Bridge, I think thats it

There's a 20p toll at Whitchurch, but it's free on a bike