National Highways Data Shows Dartford Crossing Drivers Paid £128 Million in Fines

• National Highways collected £128.4 million in Dartford Crossing penalty charges in the year to 31 March 2025, up 41 percent from £91 million the year before.
• The Dart Charge toll itself rose 40 percent to £3.50 a crossing in September 2025, and a missed payment still brings a £70 fine that climbs to £105 if left unpaid.
• Total income from the crossing reached £255.3 million for the year, even as the number of cars using it fell 1.7 percent to 49.4 million crossings.

Drivers who cross the Dartford Crossing now hand over £128.4 million a year in penalty charges alone, according to official accounts published by the Department for Transport and presented to Parliament in January 2026. The Dartford-Thurrock River Crossing Charging Scheme Accounts for 2024-25 show that enforcement income, the money collected specifically from unpaid tolls and the fines that follow, rose 41 percent in a single year, from £91 million to £128.4 million. That rise sits on top of a toll that itself went up 40 percent in September 2025, taking a single car crossing from £2.50 to £3.50.

Around 50 million vehicles use the crossing every year, roughly 137,000 a day, making it one of the busiest stretches of road in the country. There are no toll booths at Dartford: payment is made online, by phone or through an account, and any driver who does not pay by midnight the day after crossing is sent a Penalty Charge Notice through the post.

Why a 2023 System Change Is Still Costing Drivers Today

A large part of the jump traces back to a problem that began two years earlier. In July 2023, the Dart Charge service moved to a new operating system, and the change left National Highways unable to issue penalty notices on time for months afterwards. Unpunished contraventions built up through late 2023, then landed on drivers all at once. In April and May 2024, National Highways issued more than 500,000 penalty notices a month, against a usual average of 175,000 a month for those same two months in other years, close to three times the normal rate.

Those notices had been delayed for months, so many drivers had already crossed the bridge or tunnel several more times before their first fine even arrived. A single account could rack up several penalties before anyone noticed a problem existed. The accounts describe a rise in “PCN challenges and customer calls” as a direct result, and National Highways says it applied discretion in cases where its own delay had caused the extra charges.

The backlog clearance shows up directly in the money. Total scheme income for the year to 31 March 2025 came to £255.3 million, up £33.7 million on the £221.6 million collected the year before, a 15.2 percent rise. Enforcement income, the £128.4 million figure, was the single biggest driver of that increase. Traffic itself moved the opposite way: chargeable crossings fell from 50.2 million to 49.4 million, a drop of 1.7 percent, and the proportion of drivers paying on time actually improved, from 93.2 percent to 94.5 percent compliance. Fewer cars crossed the river and more of them paid correctly, yet the fine income still rose by tens of millions of pounds. Nearly all of that rise ties back to penalties tied to the two year old backlog finally working through the system, not to any fresh wave of missed payments.

Not every fine survives to be paid. The accounts show £43.2 million worth of penalty notices issued in the year were later cancelled, most of them from drivers who paid the toll within the 14 day window that reduces a first fine to £35, or who won a challenge. A further £20.6 million in crossings were never billed at all, recorded as a contravention but never turned into a penalty notice, largely a legacy of keeper details that could not be traced from the earlier backlog. Even after those write offs, the fines that stuck totalled well over £100 million.

The accounts also flag a separate error affecting direct debit customers. In November 2024, a processing fault meant some drivers were not charged for crossings that should have been billed, worth £1.2 million in total, while others were overcharged by £0.6 million through a manual error. National Highways says the overcharged accounts were refunded in January 2025, and £0.38 million of the underbilled amount was recovered directly from larger accounts, with the rest written off against the contractor rather than chased from ordinary drivers.

The toll increase adds to the pressure on regular users. From 1 September 2025, National Highways raised the pay as you go car toll from £2.50 to £3.50, a 40 percent increase, and the pre pay account rate from £2.00 to £2.80. Motorcycles rose too, from £2.50 to £2.80. Anyone who crosses and does not pay by midnight the following day receives a Penalty Charge Notice. First time users are given a 14 day window to pay the toll and have the penalty cancelled, cutting a £70 fine to £35. Miss that window and the fine stands at £70, then rises to £105 if it remains unpaid after 28 days, at which point National Highways can pass the debt to a collection agency and register it against the driver’s credit file.

None of the income raised at Dartford is kept for the crossing itself. Under the scheme’s rules, the money is paid to the Department for Transport and folded into general transport spending rather than ring fenced for the crossing or the wider road network around it. A long term fix is still years away: the Lower Thames Crossing, intended to ease pressure on the Dartford route, received development consent from the Transport Secretary in March 2025, with further government funding confirmed at the Autumn Budget 2025, but construction and opening remain some way off.

How to Avoid a Dart Charge Fine

The most reliable fix is to pay before midnight on the day after crossing, either online at gov.uk, by phone, or through a text alert if a mobile number has been registered in advance. Setting up a free Dart Charge account allows a driver to register a payment card once and either pay per crossing or move to the discounted pre pay rate of £2.80 rather than £3.50, and the account sends an automatic reminder if a payment has not gone through.

Drivers who cross rarely can register a card for one off “pay as you go” use without opening a full account, provided they still pay within the deadline. If a fine does arrive, check first whether the toll was actually paid and simply not matched to the vehicle, a genuine possibility given the scale of the errors uncovered in the 2024-25 accounts. A representation can be submitted to National Highways free of charge, and if it is rejected, a further appeal goes to an independent adjudicator at no cost to the driver. Paying within 14 days of a first penalty notice, even while a driver decides whether to appeal, keeps the fine at its lowest rate of £35 rather than risking it standing at £70 or later rising to £105.

Registered keepers who have sold a vehicle that then receives a penalty notice should supply proof of sale immediately, as the 2024-25 accounts confirm this is one of the most common reasons a penalty is cancelled on review. Anyone who crosses regularly and wants to check whether a crossing has actually been billed can log directly into the gov.uk Dart Charge portal to see payment history, rather than waiting for a penalty notice to find out.

Sources

Dartford-Thurrock River Crossing Charging Scheme Accounts 2024-25, Department for Transport, presented to Parliament and ordered to be printed 29 January 2026, covering the year ended 31 March 2025. GOV.UK, “Pay the Dartford Crossing charge (Dart Charge): Charges,” current guidance, confirming the toll increase from 1 September 2025.