Name

Approx. Date/Time

Queuing Time

Comment

Louise Relf

Xmas 2007

3hrs

I know its an obvious time of yr, but xmas 2007 - 3 hours from essex to dartford

Jon Litten

12th July 2008

4hrs 37m

Comment by John Litten- This was my longest wait just to get across to the Essex side from Dartford M25 junction 2. There didn't appear to be any vehicle breakdown just a mass of people struggling to get through! Honestly it reminded me of the film independance day! Drivers were trying to find a way out of Dartford town centre by the looks of it as well hence the roundabouts were completely gridlocked by lorries trying to join the motorway. I like Jon Bleeze's suggestion about opening the toll barriers and letting the traffic free flow until the back log has cleared or at least become more manageable. You should write to the Dartford Crossing Authority about that one! Also YES make the toll booths pay free for a month or even a week...might get more traffic then but at least they will be able to move freely.

Paul Meadows

Every Day

1 hr+

I queue every evening on the way home over the bridge. The minimum i ever queue is 30 min (EVERY DAY) but regularly it takes over an hour. it is complete rubbish that they say the bridge would be worse without a toll.... its common sense, no tolls, no stopping, flowing traffic, no delays. It's just a money grabbing situation from the 'expenses loving' government.
regards

I live just the other side of dartford town centre bt the heath. You tend to know when there are problems at the tolls because motorists use the heath and town centre as a cut through to avoid the build up of traffic joining the M25 from the kent bound A2. I am also a HGV driver based in northfleet but has to un load/ re load in purlfeet, essex every day. After using the crossing for the past 8 years you tend to know what days and what times traffic is at its worst, causing me to go over my allowed driving time on a few occasions. Evey since they have put the tolls up from £1 to £1.50 for cars the traffic hold ups have been worse than ever. i was told they put the tolls up from 80p to a pound for cars to help ease the flow due to cars having to wait for change. The biggest problem though is the sheer amount of foreign trucks that spend ages at the booths while they stop, search for the correct change and often ask for directions. scrap the tolls, they've been paid for!!!!

By the way, the longest time spent getting through the tolls to essex was nearly 3 hours, i was on the slip road of jct 1a and only had to come off at jct 31a. There never was any reason as to why it did all come to a halt but i do know that the whole of dartford town centre was grid locked as drivers were trying to find other ways round. At times like that, they should open all the booths up and allow the traffic to flow thro free of charge till the back log of cars etc have cleared. make the tolls free for a month and we will all see the huge difference it make!!!

Peter Houghton

 2hrs+

Hi I was on my way back from Hastings and i got stuck for about 2hours before i even got to the toll booth tunnel, i think something had hit the bridge etc then by the time i got to the m1 there had been a major accident going southbound which had closed a lane northbound so it was quite a long journey compared to the normal 2hours 30 mins back to Milton Keynes.

P.S. This was before the m1 road works which seems a lot better now.

John Pettengel

 2hrs

  Just under 2 hours!

 Wendy O'Leary

  We travel to Yorkshire regularly and always have to queue at the crossing! I will note the times and dates in future!!It is usually worse travelling from Kent to Essex!

 Simon Lissaur

  Jan 2009

 3hrs

  3 Hours in January because of the new £1.50 toll a lot of people have to find the extra 50p.

 Lorraine Beeton

  Regular!

 1 hr

  At least 1 hour

 Dean Rodrigues

 2hrs 45m

  2hours 45 minutes - solid traffic from Dartford back to between J4 and J5.

  Peter Jamie Jessup

 1hr 15m

  Joe Mitchell

  2008

 4hrs 15m

 …….. just getting from junction 31

Amy Lou

  23 rd May 2009

 1hr

 Saturday 23rd may @ about 1115am took me almost an hour to go from junction 29 of the m25 to the otherside of dartford bridge......and the queue was for the bridge not lakeside at junction 30. When i passed that junction there was no traffic going off the slip road!

  Linda Mawson

  28 th Nov 2008

 2hrs 30m

The longest time I had to queue was 2 1/2 hours on 28th november 2008, I started to queue at 5.15pm, and I only queued from the last joining point before the tolls, the local radio were giving out that lorries exiting the A20 had been stuck for over 5 hours and were still not able to get through and the problem was just the sheer weight of traffic trying to go to late night Christmas shop at Bluewater on one side and Lakeside on the other. I really hope this campaign succeeds and wish you lots of success.

  Craig Weekes

  5 th March 2004

 1hr 45m

  Longest time queued at the Dartford Toll Tunnel was 1Hr 45mins on the 5th March 2004, however this is only short of the time spent from Swanley Interchange to Dartford Toll Tunnel which took 3hrs 10mins

  John Hines

 20 mins

  Due to the increase in the toll charge i have only used the crossing once where previously i used to travel to Lakeside twice a week.
On the one occasion i used the crossing the delay was 19 to 20 minutes.

 Andrew Jon Heath

 1 hr

  It has got to be at least an hour from juntion 4 at orpington stop start to the tunnel

 Claire Gibbs

 1 hr

  I haven't been there for ages but I remember last year I spent a hour waiting to get onto the Bridge, let alone through the tolls.

 Bex Willans

  May 2008

 3hrs 24mins

 Claire Gibbs

 1 hr

  I haven't been there for ages but I remember last year I spent a hour waiting to get onto the Bridge, let alone through the tolls.

 Sean Kelly

  2008

 2hrs+

  last year i queued past the m20 jct on the m25, took me over 2 hours to get on the other side. i also queued past jct 28 on the m25 took me again over two hours to get over the dartford bridge

 Ben Shakespeare

  May 2009

 3hrs 30mins

  I've queued for three and a half hours at 3pm before.

 Tracy Robinson

  July 2004

 2 hrs

  I used to live in Romford and once a month we used to go to our LDS Temple just outside of East Grinstead in Sussex which should have taken about forty minutes door to door. At least once or twice a year we used to get stuck around the Lakeside exit, so we we would abandon all hope of getting through in time to make it and go to the other "temple" that was the shopping mecca( mixing my religions a bit there!) and eat in the food court or potter about but my longest wait was coming back from Bournemouth,July 2004 we were stuck for over 2 hours, boiling hot, three kids and for no apparent reason, just heavy traffic. Theres a lot of things I miss about England but traffic and the M25 are not on that list!!!!

 Mark Kelly

  Regular

 3hrs

 I live in kent and have to go to southend to pick up my boy i have sat on the kent side waiting to cross for 2 hrs + and 3hrs + on the way back some times longer.

 Adam Webb

 On a Friday afternoon!

 1hr 35mins

 I once joined the queue in the town of Aveley, down Ship Lane. Took 45minutes to get to the A1306 Roundabout. 20minutes off the roundabout and onto the A282, then 30minutes to get to the tolls. Once past the tolls, the M25 was CLEAR.... On the radio they said the queue on the M25 went up to the A127 junction. This was about 4pm on a Friday. All I ask the Government is to try it for 1 day without toll charges and see how much the congestion is removed. Then they cant argue that it isn't the tolls causing the problems. But we all know they wouldn't do that because they know it will prove them wrong!

Paul Arthurton 

  22 nd May 2009

 2 hrs

  On Friday night my Girlfriend and her parents joined the queue for the Dartford Crossing half way between junction 27 and junction 26. It took them exactly 2 hours to get across the bridge and through the toll.
I travel from Chelmsford Essex to Hastings East Sussex every other weekend to collect my daughters.
I have found that unless you are clear of the Dartford Bridge by 14:30 there is a queue which is generally at least an hour. Coming back from Kent does not seem to be as bad !!
Perhaps they should try free passage to Kent and charge on the way back to Essex and see what happens.
Also I'd heard that the bridge has been paid for and that the charges now, are CONGESTION charges and not a toll. So we have Congestion charges that are causing congestion !!!

  Kellie Davies

  Any Friday!

 1hr 30mins

  On a friday night it can take me anything from half an hour to an hour and a half.

  Dan Elliot

 Summer 2007

 4hrs +

  I struggle to remember how long i was queuing for but i remember it was from the M11 one friday afternoon in summer 2007, solid all the way through to jct 2, it was around 4 or 5 hours but i cannot remember exact time. Otherwise i often queue for over an hour for no apparent reasons. Its rediculous!

 Hannah Beesley

 1hr 15mins

  1 hour and 15 mins was my longest time, what a joke they need to get rid of it

 Sarah Sharpe

  22 nd May 2009

 1hr 30mins

  Last Friday, my husband queued from A127 to crossing. Didnt get home til 9.30pm! He was on that bit of road for about hour and half! For me, its a regular occurrance as I travel from Kent to Essex three times a week and 9 times out of 10 it takes me a good 45mins to cross the bridge in rush hour. I leave work at 4pm but dont get home til 6pm most nights. Also, we live in Crayford and are just out of the Dartford Council area by a mile - so we dont qualify for the cheap toll crossings! It has now got so bad for toll money and delays, that we are going to move back over to Essex where are families are so we dont have to use the crossing anymore. What a joke and a rip off!!

  Darren Casserly

  29 th May 2009

 40mins

  I had to wait 40mins at 14hr yesterday? Late for work again. :(

Paul

December 2008

5 hours

I set myself a personnel worst last December 2008 of 5 ½ hours to go from Brentwood to Bromley (5 hours waiting to get on to bridge). Have been using the crossing every working day for the past 12 years. Rather than risk joining the M25 at jnct 29 I decided to go round the back through Averly and come out at Lakeside. Bad Mistake!!! There were women having to suffer the embarrassment of going to the toilet at the side of the road. This could have all been resolved by just opening the tolls. Absolutely disgusting!

Ben Ornsby

2 hrs

My longest is only about 2hrs, shouldn't think that's any where near the longest. My dad told me once how he was stranded there for about 5 or 6 hours, that was 6 years ago though! The police were handing out water to everyone!

Stephen Millar

2hrs 30m

About two and a half hours..this might seem alot but i was joining the tunnel road from junction 1a!

Adrian Jones

Saturday (20th June 2009) at approx 2pm,

2 hrs

We queued for a miserable 2 hours to get over the southbound crossing.  This is not rush-hour traffic.  The crossing has a capacity problem even at weekends. The traffic was flowing freely after the tolls.  It was obvious that the tolls were causing the queue.  They do not have sufficient capacity to match that of a full-capacity 3 lane motorway. Under these conditions, the toll gates should simply be opened.  This process could easily be controlled with data from the existing speed sensors.  The loss in revenue would be an incentive to expand the capacity of the toll plaza. The current policy of choking off a road for fear of increasing usage habits is crazy.  The public, who are the customers of this vital link between most of the UK and our main access to Europe, have a right to the best service this road is capable of providing.  Personally, I do not mind paying a charge, but I expect a good service in return.