Tamar Bridge

You pay only when crossing from Saltash in Cornwall to Plymouth in Devon. Heading west into Cornwall costs nothing, so a return trip from Plymouth is charged once, on the way back. The 2025 toll order sets five classes for the bridge: solo motorcycles, which pay nothing; motor cars and anything not covered by another class; two-axle vehicles over 3.5 tonnes; three-axle vehicles; and vehicles with four or more axles.

A trailer or caravan is charged at the same toll as the vehicle pulling it, so towing doubles the price. Quad bikes, trikes and motorcycles with a sidecar pay as a car. The order describes its figures as maximums, and the tolls are outside the scope of VAT.

The booths take cash and cards, and a laser scanner reads a TamarTag as you pass. A cash receipt is available on request, and it is worth asking for one: a receipt showing the registration, date and time is the quickest proof if a violation notice ever arrives for a crossing you paid.

The barriers stay in operation even when traffic is queuing. Tamar Crossings explains that the bridge and ferry are paid for entirely by the people who use them, with no money from the government, Cornwall Council or Plymouth City Council, so any toll waived during delays would have to be recovered later through higher charges.

The crossing is recorded and you are given a way to pay later. Settle it within five calendar days and a supplement is added. The FAQ says £2.60, while the appeals page says it matches the authorised car toll, currently £3.00. The operator's pages conflict, so check the amount due with Tamar Crossings. After five days a violation notice is issued with a £60 administration fee on top of the toll, and civil recovery normally starts 29 days after the notice is issued. Pay violations online through the TamarTag website.

To dispute a notice, the registered keeper has 28 days from the date of service, which is taken as the day the post would normally deliver it. Email tollappeals@tamarcrossings.org.uk, use the online form, or post the representation section of the notice to the Torpoint Ferry Office, 2 Ferry Street, Torpoint PL11 2AX. Tamar Crossings may freeze the payment window while it investigates, then replies with a request for more evidence, a notice of acceptance or a notice of rejection.

A rejection can be appealed to the Governance and Finance Manager, whose decision normally ends the matter. If you think the process was handled improperly, Cornwall Council's Monitoring Officer and the Local Government Ombudsman hear complaints on limited grounds, and if an Order for Recovery arrives when you never received the notice, you may be able to make a statutory declaration.

A TamarTag is a prepaid account with a small device that sits on the windscreen behind the mirror, and it halves every toll. The monthly administration fee has been 80p since 2014; in June 2026 the Joint Committee rejected a proposal to raise it to £2 after public opposition. More than 90,000 tags are in use, and one account works on the ferry too.

Online applications have been suspended since 6 August 2026 while tag supplies catch up, so apply by email with the downloadable form or in person at the Tamar Bridge office in Pemros Road, St Budeaux. Tamar Crossings warned of a wait of up to four weeks for a tag, and takes no payment until the application is ready to dispatch. The account can be funded by Direct Debit or by cheque payable to Tamar Bridge.

Disabled people receiving the higher rate mobility component of Disability Living Allowance, the enhanced mobility component of Personal Independence Payment or a war pension mobility supplement, and registered blind people, can get a mobility pass. It gives 100 free crossings a year across the Tamar Bridge and the Torpoint Ferry, for a £5 administration fee.

The pass holder must be in the car at the time of crossing, or the full toll is payable. The pass lasts up to 3 years, or until the last confirmed date of benefit entitlement if that comes first, and it cannot be used in commercial vehicles apart from small vehicles adapted to carry disabled people and taxis or private hire cars hired by the pass holder. Misuse can mean losing the pass, paying the full toll and prosecution under the byelaws, with a potential fine of £100.

Bridge opened 1961; tolls set under the Tamar Bridge Act 1998 by revision orders (2019 SI 2019/1464, 2022 SI 2022/1154). After an October 2024 public inquiry the Secretary of State approved increases on 25 March 2025; SI 2025/457 came into force 28 April 2025 and the car cash toll rose from £2.60 to £3.00 (tag £1.30 to £1.50) from midnight on 12 May 2025.

Everything. The bridge opened to the public on 24 October 1961 and the Queen Mother formally opened it on 26 April 1962; Tamar Crossings says its construction, operation, maintenance and improvement have all been financed from tolls. Between 1998 and 2001 it was strengthened and widened while it stayed open, gaining an extra traffic lane and a pedestrian and cycle lane. It now carries over 14 million vehicles a year, and more than 50,000 on a busy weekday.

The current tolls followed a public local inquiry. The Secretary of State approved the application at the end of March 2025, the order was made on 7 April and came into force on 28 April, and the car toll rose to £3.00 from midnight on 12 May 2025, with the tag toll up 20p to £1.50. Tamar Crossings said the money would cover a shortfall in income, keep service levels and pay for essential work on the bridge and the ferries.

Restrictions are set by sustained gust speeds. Below 45mph the bridge runs normally. From 45mph to 55mph the central lane on the main deck closes as a safety zone. From 55mph to 75mph vulnerable vehicles are stopped, and at 75mph or more the bridge closes to all traffic, pedestrians and cyclists. Bridge Control on 01752 361577 can say whether a vehicle is likely to be affected.

The only other road crossing run by Tamar Crossings is the Torpoint Ferry, and it charges a car the same £3.00, or £1.50 on the same TamarTag, also in the eastbound direction only. Its three chain ferries sail 24 hours a day, but the crossing is a detour for anyone travelling on the A38, and during 2026 maintenance programmes it has run for long spells with two ferries instead of three.

For most drivers the saving is a TamarTag rather than a different route, and timing a return so that the tolled leg is the one you make least often changes nothing, because only eastbound crossings are ever charged.

These are the errors that most often turn a £3.00 toll into something dearer.