Its The Final Countdown…

The Dartford Crossing – one of the UK’s most recognisable transport landmarks – will change forever this weekend.

Dart Charge – a new way of paying the crossing charge – will speed up journeys by removing the need to stop at a barrier and give drivers more flexibility about how and when they pay the charge.

From 6am this Sunday (30 November) instead of paying cash at the Crossing drivers will pay online by phone or post or at one of thousands of retail outlets nationwide. Payment can be made in advance or by midnight the day after crossing.

More than 120000 Dart Charge accounts have already been set up covering more than 170000 vehicles. Each will save up to a third every time they use the Crossing when Dart Charge goes live this Sunday.

Dart Charge project director Nigel Gray said: “This is a big week for the Dartford Crossing – today marks the last Monday before cash payments at the Crossing stop and work to take out the payment booths begins. Better journeys at Dartford really are on the way. I’m very encouraged by the take up we’ve seen for pre-pay accounts which will be the easiest and cheapest way to use the Crossing. But plenty more could still benefit and now’s the time to take action.”

Setting up a Dart Charge account is quick and simple taking less than 7 minutes on average and can be done from virtually any computer tablet or smartphone. It can also be done by phone or post.

Work to remove the booths and improve the road layout will begin on Friday 28 November – the same weekend the new payment arrangements go live – and will continue until spring 2015.

Dart Charge in numbers

– 50 million – number of journeys made at the crossing each year – around 135000 per day

– 177614 – vehicles registered with Dart Charge with one week to go until go live

– 29% of accounts opened using a tablet or smartphone

– 6 minutes and 42 seconds – average time taken to open an account

86 – countries where registrations have come – about 3% of total accounts and about the same proportion foreign vehicles using the crossing each day. Most visitors are from Germany France Netherlands Belgium Switzerland Poland Italy Ireland and the Czech Republic

For more detailed information about the works including drawings of the planned road layouts please visit www.gov.uk/highways/dartford