Written a s a suggestion for a song inspiration in our Audience Book at Colindale Barnet Folk Club in July 2024. Visiting the club from the south, we had to use the crossing.
The idea of a crossing was first mooted in 1924! The first tunnel was opened in 1963 and the first toll was two shillings and sixpence. Tunnel two opened in 1980 and the bridge opened in 1991. Originally intended to carry 136,000 vehicles, the crossing toll was supposed to have been scrapped (ie construction debts paid off) in 2003, but that pledge was revoked in 2001 as the toll was to become a method to manage demand rather than raise revenue. Average daily use of the crossing is now 160,000 vehicles. Toll revenue goes to the government to spend on ‘transport improvements’.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartford_Crossing#/media/File:Dartford_tunnel_boring_1936.jpg
Image:
Description
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English: Tunnel boring machine in use constructing the Dartford-Purfleet Tunnel in 1936.
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| Date | |
| Source | Original publication: National Archives file MT 95/126
Immediate source: https://www.essexlive.news/news/essex-news/gallery/photographs-show-what-dartford-crossing-4084570 |
| Author | Ministry of Transport (now Highways England/DfT)
(Life time: Crown copyright) |
| Permission (Reusing this file) |
This is a photograph produced and published by a Government departmen |