Error parsing XSLT file: \xslt\FacebookOpenGraph.xslt Highways England claims Dart Charge saves commuters 90 minutes a week
BusinessCar magazine website email Awards mobile

The start point for the best source of fleet information

Highways England claims Dart Charge saves commuters 90 minutes a week

Date: 13 October 2015   |   Author: Daniel Puddicombe

Highways England has claimed that journeys over the Dartford Crossing are up to 56% faster than before payment barriers were removed.

The Government-owned company said that drivers are saving around 90 minutes every week since the Dart Charge remote payment system was introduced. Its figures suggest that motorists at peak times are saving up to 14 minutes southbound and seven minutes northbound.

Spread across the whole day, the average time savings are seven and a half minutes southbound and three and a half minutes northbound, HE added.

Traffic volumes at the crossing have been increasing, with up to 157,000 crossings being made every day in July, around 20,000 more than the crossing's design capacity.

"Relieving congestion and speeding up journeys at the Dartford Crossing is what Dart Charge is all about," said project director Nigel Gray.

"These really encouraging figures show what a difference Dart Charge is making for drivers. Drivers commuting from Essex in to Kent are saving around 20 minutes a day, and others commuting from Kent to Essex are saving more than 15 minutes a day," he added.

Dart Charge launched last November to speed up journeys at the Dartford Crossing and give drivers more flexibility about how and when they pay the crossing charge.

Instead of paying cash at the barriers, drivers can now pay to use the Dartford Crossing online, by phone or post, or at one of thousands of retail outlets nationwide with drivers able to set up an account that automatically charge them every time they make the crossing.

The charge can be paid in advance, or up to midnight on the day after a crossing is made.



Share


Subscribe