In message , Tim Lamb writes
No, but they have got rid of the toll booths and charge via ANPR cameras, so you can pay in advance if you want.
I've not been over since they changed over in November, but AIUI there are still roadworks around the crossing as they get rid of the old booths and make changes, like lights/barriers for checking oversized vehicles.
Its about right BUT the M25 and Dartford crossing (remember its all different pay wise these days) are unpredictable brutes at the best of times and there's a lot of road works on the NE quadrant at the moment.
As far as ferries versus trains go, I used to do this run weekly in the
80s and I ended up driving onto te ferry, going straight to first class restaurant, having a meal. avoiding ALL the day trippers entirely and being well fed and rested in time to brave Calais.I tried the train and didn't like it much.
Fast, but not relaxing .. fine without a car tho. It destroyed the hovercraft too.
I went on the hovercraft - 30 years ago. I'd never want to use it again. The vibration was headache inducing and then I had to drive home.
We reckon on 2.5 hours from Ipswich to Dover.
Hm, this certainly wasn't the rule the last time I travelled which as 18 months ago
Then they had the rule that they have had for the previous 6+ years about only being allowed onto the one before, and I've certainly arrived much more than 2 hour before, and never been treated any differently.
tim
just set up an account for auto payment
tim
AA Travelwatch is showing a few delays today on the M25, of 10 mins. each. That is manageable within my anticipated window, assuming similar conditions in a couple of weeks. I will be outside rush hours, which will help.
and what a meal they are making of that.
How long does it take to remove a cardboard building? They could probably remove the lot in a couple of overnight possessions. (OK I accept that it will take longer to remove all of the kerbs and "flatten" the road surface).
but no, they are still there (well they were three weeks ago) and you still (northbound) have to drive up to the barrier, wait for the green light and the barrier to rise before proceeding.
what a palaver that is
tim
I drove to Frankfurt after using it, twice, so it wasn't a problem for me. Horses for courses.
they let you through and direct you to the "land side" exit. I had to do that when the tunnel was not running and they put everyone on the ferry
tim
I have no plans to use it again in the predictable future, so I'll just do the one-off pre-pay, and it is a hire car, so I'll never drive that same vehicle again. I won't even need to use the Crossing on the way back, as I'll be landing at Harwich.
I can see that being possible if they are turning everybody away, but would it be practical for just one vehicle that has turned up early?
On 05/03/2015 09:21, Chris French wrote: ...
I've never heard of that rule before, so it has not deterred me :-)
I suspect it is mainly because they have planned the car parking / waiting lines on the basis of two hours' worth of full trains and want the option of being able to refuse people if those are filling up. I would be very surprised if they invoked it at a slack time.
I aim to be there two hours before departure and once, after problems on the M25, was been pleased I had allowed that much time. As a result, I sometimes do turn up more than two hours before departure and have never been turned back. Except on a busy day, all that has happened has been that I travel on an earlier train.
I reckon 25 hours (+/- a little) from home here (Lancs) to home in France - but that includes overnight ferry from Portsmouth. Yayyyy only 10 days to go!
John
Our first trip to Germany was in our Hillman Avenger which was not very reliable. But after I fitted an oil cooler and getting lots of spares such as spare diaphragm for the carb, we risked it.
Turned out to be a great trip and the spares were still with the car when I changed it.
John
Many, many moons ago, my Dad drove us abroad in a Bedford van with a caravan towed behind. We got all the way to Zurich. On the way back, thankfully approaching Calais, the gear lever went all wobbly, leaving only 2nd and reverse, one end of the 'H'. We got to Calais, and they loaded us first, so at Dover, we had the whole empty deck in front of us, and Dad took a run along it and shot up the ramp, all in 2nd gear, to a load of cheering dock workers! A garage in Dover quickly fixed the problem, it was a linkage that went over-centre, and easily solved, if you knew the problem.
Actually they offered me the option of leaving the same way when I once turned up at the entrance with my exhaust hanging off.
As I only had to drive a short way on the other side (to a rental flat) I opted to have their maintenance man tie it up with some string and got it fixed at my destination (with more difficulty than I expected cos, apparently, RHD and LHD exhausts are different)
tim
when I was a kid (so that's 40 years ago), my cousin (who's about 10 years older than me) and her husband, drove a camper van all the way to Iran (and back)
tim
In message , Davey writes
Huh! I re-jigged our return flight to land at Gatwick around 10pm instead of 3.30pm thus carefully avoiding the 5.00pm crawl clockwise round the M25.
Instead they had long stretches of 40mph and 50 mph limits where they appeared to be sweeping the inside lane. The M4 and M3 access was closed after 12.00 as well.
Wouldn't it have been nice if they'd extended the shuttle route to an additional terminal at, say, Watford? Save driving that horrible M25 and through Kent route.
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