FTA calls for greater reliability on road network following improvements at Dartford
Drivers using the Dartford Crossing at peak times are saving around an hour and a half every week thanks to Dart Charge, according to8101 Highways England.
New figures released by Highways England show that journeys over the Dartford Crossing, which cost £62million (US$95 million) to convert to free-flow tolling, are up to 56 per cent faster than before payment barriers were removed. Drivers at peak times save up to 14 minutes southbound and seven minutes northbound.
Spread across the day, the average time savings are seven and a half minutes southbound and three and a half minutes northbound. The improvements have been achieved despite traffic volumes at the crossing growing by around 4 per cent, with up to 157,000 crossings being made every day in July, around 20,000 over the Crossing’s design capacity.
Dart Charge project director Nigel Gray said: “Relieving congestion and speeding up journeys at the Dartford Crossing is what Dart Charge is all about. 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. We still have more work to do, working with partners to ensure that all the approaches to the tunnels in Kent are working as well as they possibly can. But I hope that these figures will reassure people that the improvements are real and that Dart Charge is working.”
Following publication of the data, the6983 Freight Transport Association says it has bigger concerns regarding overall journey reliability. It has called on the Government and highway authorities for greater reliability on the road network through better infrastructure and control of routes such as smart motorways which increase flow reliability.
The freight industry judges journey times based on experience and by using route planning software, calculating the transport cost based on distance and time. However, problems arise when incidents occur and the network fails, causing interruptions to journeys. That is something the industry cannot predict and ends up being a cost that has to be absorbed as it cannot be planned for when contracts are drawn up. FTA has calculated the cost of delays to transport operators equates to £1 for every minute an HGV sits in traffic.
Malcolm Bingham, FTA’s head of Road Network Management Policy, said: “If an HGV uses the Dartford Crossing several times in a day that would mean a time saving, possibly enabling drivers to travel further before having to take a statutory rest break in accordance with drivers’ hours rules. However it is hard to see what is meaningfully gained by vehicles on cross-Channel journeys which are only likely to gain a few minutes for that journey on just one day.”
FTA has supported the improvements at Dartford in terms of the benefits they have delivered for drivers, however the Association says that they are only a short-term fix and another crossing of the Thames must be planned for and built in order to cope with future demand.
Drivers using the Dartford Crossing at peak times are saving around an hour and a half every week thanks to Dart Charge, according to
New figures released by Highways England show that journeys over the Dartford Crossing, which cost £62million (US$95 million) to convert to free-flow tolling, are up to 56 per cent faster than before payment barriers were removed. Drivers at peak times save up to 14 minutes southbound and seven minutes northbound.
Spread across the day, the average time savings are seven and a half minutes southbound and three and a half minutes northbound. The improvements have been achieved despite traffic volumes at the crossing growing by around 4 per cent, with up to 157,000 crossings being made every day in July, around 20,000 over the Crossing’s design capacity.
Dart Charge project director Nigel Gray said: “Relieving congestion and speeding up journeys at the Dartford Crossing is what Dart Charge is all about. 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. We still have more work to do, working with partners to ensure that all the approaches to the tunnels in Kent are working as well as they possibly can. But I hope that these figures will reassure people that the improvements are real and that Dart Charge is working.”
Following publication of the data, the
The freight industry judges journey times based on experience and by using route planning software, calculating the transport cost based on distance and time. However, problems arise when incidents occur and the network fails, causing interruptions to journeys. That is something the industry cannot predict and ends up being a cost that has to be absorbed as it cannot be planned for when contracts are drawn up. FTA has calculated the cost of delays to transport operators equates to £1 for every minute an HGV sits in traffic.
Malcolm Bingham, FTA’s head of Road Network Management Policy, said: “If an HGV uses the Dartford Crossing several times in a day that would mean a time saving, possibly enabling drivers to travel further before having to take a statutory rest break in accordance with drivers’ hours rules. However it is hard to see what is meaningfully gained by vehicles on cross-Channel journeys which are only likely to gain a few minutes for that journey on just one day.”
FTA has supported the improvements at Dartford in terms of the benefits they have delivered for drivers, however the Association says that they are only a short-term fix and another crossing of the Thames must be planned for and built in order to cope with future demand.
