How much money is taken annually at the Dartford Crossing and where does it all go? UK Answers only?

Question

How much money is taken annually at the Dartford Crossing and where does it all go? UK Answers only?

Answer 1

The Severn River crossings on the M4 (new) and M48 (old) are also revenue generators for the Government. When the first bridge was opened by Barbara Castle (the then transport minister) in 1966 the toll was 10 (pre-decimalisation) pence - equivalent to 4 pence now. She promised that the toll would last no more than 10 years. At decimalisation the toll was two shillings and six pence.This was converted to twelve new pence - a very slight reduction. Today, forty years on from the opening, the toll is £5.30 for cars and will continue increasing above the rate of inflation for another 25 years. The toll is imposed only on motorists entering Wales - passage out of Wales is free across the bridges.

Answer 2

Well, the crossing takes takes approximately £150,000 per day so multiply that by 365 gives you a figure of £54,750,000 (approx).

Where does the money go? To the Highways Agency, Le Crossing Company Limited and the Treasury.

There has been considerable controversy over the tolls for using the crossing. When the bridge was built, the tolls were only supposed to be imposed until such time that they had paid for the costs of building the bridge, but the Labour Government reneged on this promise citing that removing the toll would increase congestion so the toll remains. As a regular user of the crossing myself, I find the reasoning behind this cynical in the extreme as having tolls actually increase congestion and inhibit the free flow of traffic along the M25. The crossing is regularly backed up for miles.

You can read more here;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartford_Cr...

http://www.abd.org.uk/dartford_tolls.htm

http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/project...