Dartford Crossing fee will rise to £3.50 in September
June 18, 2025 by Siobhan Doyle
Car changing is a big deal
Use the Dartford Crossing regularly? Well, from September, you’ll have to pay £3.50 to pass through.
The standard charge for car drivers using the Dartford Crossing, which links the M25 in Essex and Kent, will rise from £2.50 to £3.50 in September.
The reason behind the rise? Future of Roads minister, Lilian Greenwood, said the road was used by as many as 180,000 vehicles each day and that the current charge was “no longer sufficient to manage demand”.
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What does this mean for all vehicles?
You’ll be impacted least if you live nearby as Greenwood said there would be “significant” discounts for people living locally. Local residents can pay £25 per year for unlimited crossings, up from £20 a year.
If you have a car along with a pre-pay account, known as the Dart Charge, you’ll pay £2.80 per crossing.
Meanwhile, if you drive a bus, coach, van or other goods vehicles with two axles, you’ll pay slightly more under the changes: £4.20. Vehicles with more than two axles will be charged up to £8.40.
The fees were last increased in 2014, with Greenwood arguing that the new charges were “significantly lower” than if they had increased in line with inflation since then.
“I’m aware that these necessary changes to the charges will be unwelcome news for users of the crossing,” she said. “These traffic levels are well in excess of the crossing’s design capacity, causing delays for drivers.”
Some MPs just see it as ‘another tax’
Under the original construction scheme for the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge (which opened in 1991), tolls were meant to stop when the private finance initiative contract with Dartford River Crossing Limited ended in 2003.
But the 2000 Transport Act had introduced charging schemes for all trunk roads, bridges and tunnels that spanned more than 600m. This allowed the Highways Agency to continue to charge a crossing fee.
Labour MP Jen Craft from nearby Thurrock, who regularly uses the crossing herself, said: “I will be writing to the roads minister to ask if there’s any scope to reconsider it, also asking if there’s any way of retaining some of the money that’s raised to fund local public transport.”
However, she said she could see the “logic” behind increasing the fees.
Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay, Richard Holden, branded the increase as “just another tax on motorists” for drivers who had “no other option” but to use the crossing.
“I don’t understand how that’s possibly justifiable at the moment, and if the minister wants to try and justify that they should have the backbone to do it on the floor of the House of Commons where they can be questioned on it.”
Jim Dickson, the Labour MP for Dartford, said the price rise was “unwelcome” but said he was glad ministers had listened to his request to ensure Dartford residents would still receive a “significant discount” for their annual passes.
This week, the Treasury announced it would give £590m to the Lower Thames Crossing – a new tunnel under the estuary – which would link Tilbury in Essex and Gravesend in Kent. National Highways hopes the new road will reduce traffic at the Dartford Crossing by 20%.
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