Dartford Crossing commuters are saving 90 minutes-a-week now the barriers have been removed, according to Highways England.

Despite frequent accidents, today's figures (October 13) find peak-time drivers save an average of 14 minutes when travelling southbound, and seven minutes northbound.

This should save commuters an hour and a half of precious time a week.

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Throughout the day, drivers save an average of seven-and-a-half minutes heading south, and three-and-a-half minutes northbound.

Journey times are reducing despite the number of cars, lorries and other vehicles making the crossing growing by 4 per cent.

Roughly 157,000 daily crossings were made in July - which is 20,000 vehicles over the Crossing's capacity.

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The Dartford Crossing, before the barriers were removed

Dart Charge project director Nigel Gray said: "Relieving congestion and speeding up journeys at the Dartford Crossing is what Dart Charge is all about.

"These really encouraging figures show what a difference Dart Charge is making for drivers.

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"We still have more work to do, but I hope that these figures will reassure people that the improvements are real and that Dart Charge is working."

Dart Charge launched in November in a bid to speed up journeys on the Dartford Tunnel and Crossing - and the barriers were removed.

However drivers continue to complain about delays on the M25 approach to the crossing, which Dartford MP Gareth Johnson recently dubbed "Britain's worst stretch of motorway".

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