App To Reserve A Space At The Station Car Park

[duncanp]

Saw this on the Network West Midlands site

https://www.networkwestmidlands.com/ways-to-travel/driving/park-and-ride/save-a-space/

Currently we are signing new users for our Save-a-Space app trial at train stations across the West Midlands. Prebook your space before you leave your house now available at the following stations:

• Northfield
• Rowley
• Tile Hill
• Four Oaks
• Whitlocks End
• Stourbridge

I can't help thinking that this will end in tears, as it seems it is rather like the ill advised scheme run by Cross Country trains where you can use an app to reserve a seat for a train that is already en route.

The app allows you to reserve one of 5 pre bookable spaces in each station car park. You have to specify your arrival and departure time.

Several questions spring to mind:-

• How do you stop someone who has not used the app to reserve a space from parking in one of the pre bookable spaces?
• What happens if someone reserves a space and does not turn up?
• What happens if someone reserves a space until a particular time, does not get back in time because their train is late, and someone else has subsequently reserved that space?

 

[Bletchleyite]

• How do you stop someone who has not used the app to reserve a space from parking in one of the pre bookable spaces?
• What happens if someone reserves a space and does not turn up?
• What happens if someone reserves a space until a particular time, does not get back in time because their train is late, and someone else has subsequently reserved that space?

I would suspect...

1. The app has the registration number recorded, so when someone goes round to do enforcement the person who parked when they shouldn't receives a hefty penalty (which on the railway is legally enforceable as it's a Byelaw so can't just be ignored) and the person who paid receives a refund, and possibly some compensation on top coming from the penalty.

2. The space remains empty. They have, however, paid for it non-refundably and no doubt at an additional premium, so that's their entitlement if they wish.

3. Railway car parks, particularly those at local stations, are generally priced on the basis of "all day", with some, e.g. Merseyrail stations, not even allowing overnight parking. This being the case, I expect a reservation would be all day and so this would be unlikely to happen. If the car was left all night for some reason such as the owner deciding to go to the pub for a pint or 10, see (1).

However, it's possible they are going more high-tech. Sensor-controlled car parks do exist (my nearest Sainsbury's has one) and so they could detect if a car was parked there or not before allowing the space to be booked.

 

[Mathew S]

Saw this on the Network West Midlands site

https://www.networkwestmidlands.com/ways-to-travel/driving/park-and-ride/save-a-space/



I can't help thinking that this will end in tears, as it seems it is rather like the ill advised scheme run by Cross Country trains where you can use an app to reserve a seat for a train that is already en route.

The app allows you to reserve one of 5 pre bookable spaces in each station car park. You have to specify your arrival and departure time.

Several questions spring to mind:-

• How do you stop someone who has not used the app to reserve a space from parking in one of the pre bookable spaces?
• What happens if someone reserves a space and does not turn up?
• What happens if someone reserves a space until a particular time, does not get back in time because their train is late, and someone else has subsequently reserved that space?

To be fair, those are all problems which car clubs like Enterprise solve on a daily basis, so there's no reason it can't work. On the face of it, I think it's a good idea (and I say this as someone who has just this morning spent almost £150 on a parking permit at my local station with no guarantee of a space whatsoever).

 

[Aictos]

Surely a far easier idea is just to have something called premium parking which is clearly laid out and which the end driver applies for a permit for that specific space with a drop down bollock if need be to prevent others using it.

It's been in place on the GN for years so it does work and is far more reliable then using mobile technology as proposed.

 

[centraltrains]

Surely they will just end up being reserved all day by commuters who would use them anyway... Whitlock's End at least is always full by 8:30AM Weekdays (and deserted weekends). (Imagine it's similar with the others?) I can't think the current users will be happy loosing 5 spaces to this scheme. What they really need is extension proposals to be funded!

https://solihullobserver.co.uk/news...ocks-end-railway-stations-park-ride-revealed/
https://solihullobserver.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Whitlocks-End-Map.jpg

 

[PeterC]

Never tried it with a station car park but I have pre-paid a space in a council car park on the web to avoid installing yet another app on my phone.

I am sure that there will be teething problems but a couple of press releases when the first PCNs are issued should help get the message across.