The Crossing We Bear

By road it is less than seventeen miles from my home to the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Greenhithe, a journey that ought to take no more than thirty-five minutes, and in fairness, it often takes little more than that to get there. Getting home, however is another matter. As anyone who has travelled north from Kent into Essex using the Dartford Crossing knows, what ought to be a simple matter of driving just a few miles can be immensely frustrating; delays are not only common, they seem to be compulsory. Returning home from Bluewater just last week, and having  found myself in a line of traffic that moved at one car's length every ten minutes or so, I took a detour through Dartford, along the A2, through the Rotherhithe Tunnel and home via the A13 rather than endure the interminable queue for the Dartford Tunnel. I doubt it took any longer than going the conventional way in the end.

Queues like this one, northbound for the Dartford Tunnel are the norm these days.

It didn't used to be this bad.  When the first, single bore tunnel at Dartford opened in November 1963, the toll was two shillings and sixpence (12.5p) and traffic was expected to be approximately two million vehicles annually; by 1970 it had reached eight million. The original two-way tunnel was supplemented by a further tunnel in 1980, and the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge which opened in 1991. By March 2014 the number of vehicles using the crossing annually had reached fifty-million and charges for cars had increased to £2, and £5 for multi-axled vehicles. Original suggestions that tolls would be abolished when the crossing had paid for itself never materialised - it was anticipated that the tolls would be removed on 1 April 2003 however the Highways Agency decided that the tolls would become a "charge." The charge - collected online now that the toll booths have been removed - now stands at £2.50 for cars, albeit that a discount can be had by paying through Dart Charge's auto top-up scheme. Removing the toll booths came with a major reorganisation of the road network on the Kent side of the crossing and it's probably fair to say that many people anticipated that their removal would improve traffic flow and speed up journeys. The reality (whatever the government might say - and more of that in a minute) is that while travelling south over the bridge is generally quite good, travelling back into Essex through the tunnels has become the stuff of nightmares.

The crossing with toll booths in place, pre-2014

Barely a day goes by without a report on local TV or radio of delays northbound: sometimes it's due to an accident, other times there appears to be no explanation, but whatever the cause the delays seem always to stretch for hours and the queues for miles. Some people have a choice - an alternative route or simply not travelling are options unless you commute that way, in which case you have to grin and bear it, like Mr Anand Surve from Orpington, who travels daily to his work in Brentwood via the crossing and says that he gets stuck in traffic for an hour at least twice a week. So frustrated has he become that he has started a petition to propose that just as commuters can claim compensation for seriously delayed rail journeys, drivers should similarly be compensated for delays at the crossing. As much as I can appreciate Mr Surve's frustration, I sadly don't think that he's going to get very far with his campaign, although if you have a mind to add to the number of signatories to his petition, you can find it here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/174299

In with more of a chance of success is the petition started by Alan Pattison calling for an enquiry into the performance of the Northbound Dartford Crossing (you can find that one here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/167168). The petition describes the changes that have been made as " a botched scheme which shows no evidence of improvement." In response, the government claims that the changes that were implemented in 2014 - altered road lay out, removal of toll booths, introduction of Dart Charge - have reduced journey times for drivers. I am sure that the government have statistics that prove this, and doubtless at three o'clock in the morning it's an absolute breeze passing through the tunnel, but for normal commuters and other travellers, claims that journey times have improved will be greeted with disbelief.

Highway England's own website makes the case for a lower Thames Crossing.

It always seems that new road schemes ultimately generate yet more traffic,  and the M25, the two lengths of which are joined by the Dartford Crossing, although now not new (it was completed in 1986, with parts having opened in 1975) is a prime example. Like Parkinson's Law (work expands to fill the amount of time available),  traffic volumes increase to fill the available roads. The M25 was supposed to reduce congestion, but as anyone who drives around it, or indeed the North Circular, South Circular or any other road within the confines of the orbital motorway knows, congestion in the London area is getting worse, not better and by the end of 2015 a five-mile journey through central London took, on average, nearly 30 minutes — almost five minutes longer than at the beginning of the year. Highways England (HE) acknowledge that there is congestion at the Dartford Tunnel in the very  same breath as they say that journey times have improved, and as someone who regularly drives close by the approaches to the bridge I can attest to the fact that snarl ups north of the river are a common occurrence too, so it is clear that the whole, current Dartford Crossing mechanism needs an urgent review. To which end, HE consulted on a lower Thames crossing proposal during 2016 with three different routes under consideration. Naturally, there has been plenty of opposition from residents on both sides of the river and while it's understandble that people are less than enthusiastic about major road building programmes on their doorsteps, no doubt many of these folk are equally unhappy about the frequent gridlock that their neighbourhoods descend into.

The route preferred by Highways England for a new, lower Thames Crossing.

The misery that regular users of the crossing face was perfectly captured by spoof news website Southend News Network with their comic Christmas song "Dartford Tolls" - watch it here http://southendnewsnetwork.com/news/dartford-crossing-song-hits-one-million-views-now-for-the-christmas-charts/ but take care, one version is very definitely NSFW - but it's no joke for anyone within a five-mile radius of the tunnel entrance. However, there is a solution to this congestion nightmare, and frankly it's such an obvious one that I am amazed that Highways England have not already thought of it - make the M25 one way, clockwise. By eliminating the capability of traffic to drive north through the tunnels - both of which would be southbound only - the problem goes away. I concede that the journey for HGV's from say, Erith to Thurrock could increase from eleven to one-hundred and seventeen miles, but that's an awful lot more tax revenue on diesel sales which could be pumped into new road building schemes. That's bonkers, you might say, but when one hears of drivers taking two or even three hours to get through the tunnel while a whole circuit of the M25 can take as little as an hour and three-quarters - maybe it's not such a bad idea after all!