Car Parking at Railway Stations

Hadders · 11 Sep 2019

Station car parking tickets really should expire at 04:29 to be consistent with railway ticketing.

RailUK Forums

PeterC · 11 Sep 2019

The use of flat rate daily charges does feel like a real rip off if you are going out for the evening.

To go into London Monday to Friday daytime the cost of station parking plus fares is less than that of London parking plus congestion charge.
To go to a gig in the evening I would normally drive, the cost of parking matches the cost of driving before considering the fare.

telstarbox · 11 Sep 2019

Of course if you're arriving at the car park in the evening, you could weight up the cost of the ticket with the probability of the warden coming round and nicking you in that time. I'll leave the maths as an exercise for the reader...

greyman42 · 11 Sep 2019

sw1ller said:
Genuinely shocked at this. I had to check their website as I couldn’t believe there’s a carpark that charges more than a tenner a day! And it seems your charges are out of date and it’s now £17.50!! For 4 hours+!! That is horrific and shouldn’t be allowed. Not for a station carpark anyway. Something needs to be done about that.

It is the same at York station and it is full every day so they can get away with it. The one thing you could say in their defence is that security is good so if you have a decent or high end car you get some peace of mind. There is another car park on the other side of the station which is significantly cheaper but motorists still choose to use the station car park.

PeterC · 11 Sep 2019

telstarbox said:
Of course if you're arriving at the car park in the evening, you could weight up the cost of the ticket with the probability of the warden coming round and nicking you in that time. I'll leave the maths as an exercise for the reader...

100% probability since they installed ANPR.

bluenoxid · 11 Sep 2019

Cuboid said:
I park at New Pudsey station which is an open plan 500-space car park. Currently free and hope it will remain so in the future.

I seem to remember there was a fuss a few years ago after Northern were thinking of introducing parking charges for it (probably because they got asked to contribute to expand it to 500-spaces) but they backed down.

If anyone knows the station then it's quite useful (apart from getting out of it) for a 'park-and-ride' style system and nothing else since the actual town of Pudsey is up a massive steep hill at least half to a mile away. Only useful for commuters.

It will be interesting to see what happens with LPTIP funding.

The hill to Pudsey is not massive. A substantial contribution is that the majority of Pudsey near to Stanningley West/New Pudsey railway station has to take a massive dog leg to get to the station extending the journey and making the car the mode of choice. Some people think that a bus to Fartown will help but a bump/breakdown anywhere within two miles and the whole of this part of Leeds grinds to a halt.

The new Dawson’s Corner changes and some sensible paths will open up shorter routes that will make walking and cycling to New Pudsey the mode of choice for people travelling by train. Hopefully it will also release parking spaces for people from further afield

I hope that they don’t charge and if they do, they keep it low. It would be silly to lose people to Elland Road/Bramley railway station/streets closer to the city.

flitwickbeds · 12 Sep 2019

Hadders said:
Station car parking tickets really should expire at 04:29 to be consistent with railway ticketing.

That would then inconvenience night shift workers who would have to buy two tickets.

Why not make them for a 24 hour period? At my local station the official station car park expires at (I think) 2am, while a private (slightly cheaper) one next door does 24 hour tickets.

xotGD · 12 Sep 2019

"All day" car parking ends at 18:00 at my local station, with a further £1 charge for the evening.

While the £1 fee doesn't make much money, the fines from people who don't make it back from Leeds or Bradford by 18:00 are a money spinner. Parking enforcement folk appear at about 18:15 to hand out the tickets.

flitwickbeds · 12 Sep 2019

xotGD said:
"All day" car parking ends at 18:00 at my local station, with a further £1 charge for the evening.

While the £1 fee doesn't make much money, the fines from people who don't make it back from Leeds or Bradford by 18:00 are a money spinner. Parking enforcement folk appear at about 18:15 to hand out the tickets.

Can you add the £1 on at the start of your parking, say at 9am?

I once encountered a town centre car park which had a flat fee for parking after 6pm - but it was impossible to pay for it up front. As I arrived at 5.30 ish not only did I have to pay for 1 hours daytime parking (the minimum available) but I had to return 25 minutes later, wait for the machine to roll past 6pm, and feed a quid in and display that ticket instead. Frustrating wouldn't be the word.

Kite159 · 12 Sep 2019

xotGD said:
"All day" car parking ends at 18:00 at my local station, with a further £1 charge for the evening.

While the £1 fee doesn't make much money, the fines from people who don't make it back from Leeds or Bradford by 18:00 are a money spinner. Parking enforcement folk appear at about 18:15 to hand out the tickets.

With probably some juicy kickbacks to the TOC from the parking company which probably makes them more money.

ajs · 22 Sep 2019

ajs said:
On the bank holiday Monday, l parked in a car park at one of the SWR stations and paid the fee by means of the ticket machine.The only option available was all day peak parking. There was no option for off peak parking charges. As the railways were operating "of peak" on the bank holiday I was expecting the car park charge to be at the off peak rate as well. I am taking this up with SWR but in the meantime , any thoughts?

Further to my original post, SWR have agreed that off peak charges should have applied and have refunded the difference, exceot that they have got their figures mixed up and refunded me £1.50 less than they should have done.

Would SWR let me off a fare by paying £1.50 less? No of course not so am now awaiting the balance.

Perhaps I should also impose a penalty charge!!

tgrb · 22 Sep 2019

At GWR Chippenham if you pay for a day you get 24 hours and has been like that for as long as I remember, I think Kemble is the same.

This generally works pretty well even if I am staying over night and I think a fair way to do it

tgrb · 22 Sep 2019

tgrb said:
At GWR Chippenham if you pay for a day you get 24 hours and has been like that for as long as I remember, I think Kemble is the same.

This generally works pretty well even if I am staying over night and I think a fair way to do it

Saying that, that has changed at GRW car parks since July 18 according to my receipts when it used to end at 23:59 and you had to get 2 days!

geoffk · 22 Sep 2019

tgrb said:
At GWR Chippenham if you pay for a day you get 24 hours and has been like that for as long as I remember, I think Kemble is the same.

This generally works pretty well even if I am staying over night and I think a fair way to do it

I remember Kemble being free as it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere, likewise Bristol Parkway.

tgrb · 22 Sep 2019

geoffk said:
I remember Kemble being free as it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere, likewise Bristol Parkway.

Not any more sadly, but it’s pretty good value

And I must admit I have forgotten to pay a couple of times

james2trains · 22 Sep 2019

Hadders said:
Station car parking tickets really should expire at 04:29 to be consistent with railway ticketing.

Interestingly, the car park at Wakefield Westgate station does this, but only on Saturdays and Sundays. The all day Mon-Fri tariff is £11 for up to 24 hours, where as on a weekend its £5 per day (up until 4.29am the next day).

Joe Paxton · 22 Sep 2019

PeterC said:
The use of flat rate daily charges does feel like a real rip off if you are going out for the evening.

To go into London Monday to Friday daytime the cost of station parking plus fares is less than that of London parking plus congestion charge.
To go to a gig in the evening I would normally drive, the cost of parking matches the cost of driving before considering the fare.

Many stations do also have an off-peak evening tariff. (in one place I can think of this is actually cheaper than the cost of any other car park!)

Also - and this is an old chestnut - but 'the cost of driving' should really include insurance, MOT & servicing costs, depreciation etc on top of the cost of fuel and parking. But yes, this isn't a calculation most people carry in their heads (I certainly don't!).

Joe Paxton · 22 Sep 2019

flitwickbeds said:
I once encountered a town centre car park which had a flat fee for parking after 6pm - but it was impossible to pay for it up front. As I arrived at 5.30 ish not only did I have to pay for 1 hours daytime parking (the minimum available) but I had to return 25 minutes later, wait for the machine to roll past 6pm, and feed a quid in and display that ticket instead. Frustrating wouldn't be the word.

There are some daft arrangements and implementations out there.

A pay by mobile phone facility - if available - can often overcome such stupidities, either by offering better logic than the (badly programmed) car park ticket machine or by offering the ability to extend your parking period.

Mogz · 24 Sep 2019

No consistency nationwide.

Merseyrail station car parks are usually free for rail users!

By contrast my local station, Banbury, at £8.50 daily could well tip the balance (cost wise) in favour of driving for many local journeys.

PeterC · 24 Sep 2019

Joe Paxton said:
There are some daft arrangements and implementations out there.

A pay by mobile phone facility - if available - can often overcome such stupidities, either by offering better logic than the (badly programmed) car park ticket machine or by offering the ability to extend your parking period.

Much better with ANPR as long as you can run an account rather than pre-pay.
Not railway but I opened a Parkreg account for the Oxford Park and Ride. Brilliant, just had one charge at the end of the month. Trouble is after one month Oxford gave their contract to somebody else.

I don't normally use parking apps as the car parks I would use one for are run by the rip off merchants who add a service charge for the privilage of not using cash. Don't start me on the "cash free" car parks where they still put a service charge on top of the advertised rates.

Car Parking at Railway Stations

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