Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what steps he plans to take to reduce the length of crossing times for the Dartford Crossing; and when he expects such steps to take effect.

Chris Mole (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

The Department for Transport and the Highways Agency are committed to improving the levels of service experienced by users of the Dartford Crossing.

In the short term the Highways Agency are in the process of implementing a package of measures, including the introduction of average speed cameras and further traffic management technology, to reduce the number of incidents at the Crossing, which will improve journey times.

Additionally, 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.

The study recommended further work on two possible measures, recognising that each had the potential to generate some small benefits by increasing throughput while avoiding impacts on safety. This work is being taken forward and is expected to take 12 to 18 months to complete.