The Department for Transport is committed to improving the levels of service experienced by users of the Dartford crossing.
In April 2009, the Department published its initial analysis of the current and possible future capacity constraints at the Dartford-Thurrock river crossing. On the basis of the findings and conclusions of the analysis, we announced further work to investigate what can be done in the short to medium term to improve the level of service provided by the existing crossing. This includes looking into ways to increase efficiency through the use of new technology.
The introduction of payment by credit or debit cards could be considered if it were demonstrated that this would be both cost effective and would not adversely impact on transaction times.