Virgin Trains excessive increase in parking charges

[MKB]

Apologies if there is already one, but I can't find a thread on this.

Earlier this month, Virgin Trains West Coast have again increased parking charges at Coventry and Birmingham International (and, for all I know, elsewhere too). These are not inflation increases, but huge triple-digit percentage increases. They come on top of large increases earlier this year and last.

As an example, I regularly travel to London for the weekend, and park at Coventry from Friday evening to Sunday evening. Two years ago, this cost £8 comprising £4 for Friday and £2 for each of the weekend days. This year that had already risen 37% to £11. As of this month, it now costs £22 = £12 for Friday and £5 for the weekend days.

This is an abuse of a monopoly position on parking at these stations. I'm looking, but I haven't yet found any practicable alternatives other than not travelling, which may be what I end up doing. I'm certainly not paying £22 for 48 hours parking. This is nothing but pure greed by VT and I will not support it.

 

[coppercapped]

Apologies if there is already one, but I can't find a thread on this.

Earlier this month, Virgin Trains West Coast have again increased parking charges at Coventry and Birmingham International (and, for all I know, elsewhere too). These are not inflation increases, but huge triple-digit percentage increases. They come on top of large increases earlier this year and last.

As an example, I regularly travel to London for the weekend, and park at Coventry from Friday evening to Sunday evening. Two years ago, this cost £8 comprising £4 for Friday and £2 for each of the weekend days. This now costs £22 = £12 for Friday and £5 for the weekend days.

Prices have at least doubled, and off-peak rates have been scrapped.

This is an abuse of a monopoly position on parking at these stations. I'm looking, but I haven't yet found any practicable alternatives other than not travelling, which may be what I end up doing. I'm certainly not paying £22 for 48 hours parking. This is nothing but pure greed by VT and I will not support it.

You can pay more than twice that for a day's parking in central London...!

 

[Bletchleyite]

How about taking a train through from your local railway station instead? Or if Coventry is your local railway station, a taxi to there?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Quite a few others have been upped too I believe - Crewe was £12 when I last passed through.

 

[Geezertronic]

The car parks at Marston Green and Lea Hall are usually pretty full. Not sure about Hampton in Arden but assume it to be small. Berkswell does not usually look full, nor does Canley - unsure about Tile Hill.

As the poster above said, may be worth checking from one of the local stations and get a LM into Cov or BHI if your intention is to catch a VT/XC service

 

[MKB]

How about taking a train through from your local railway station instead? Or if Coventry is your local railway station, a taxi to there?

I live in Nuneaton. VT cut our late-night service a long while ago, so I have to travel from Coventry in order to be able to get back after 10pm. Taxi back from Cov would be £30-ish.

To London, I'm using Traveller tickets, so there are very few options from Nuneaton in any case.

Googling, I see a letter in the local paper last December http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/local-news/spiralling-cost-parking-coventry-station-10599233 where the author asks "What are the odds for £4 per day by January 2017?". Well, it's September, and we're well past £4!

I see the same paper covers the new increases here: http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/peak-parking-been-axed-coventry-11782472

 

[theblackwatch]

Most VTWC stations have increased recently. The 'new' car park at Crewe was previously £2.50 at weekends, now it is £5.00, as I discovered when I went to the recent DRS Open Day.

Mind You, that's cheap compared to NR's whopping £19.00 a day at Leeds, even at weekends. I've now been put off by making journeys that start at Leeds, as in many cases, the parking can cost more than the journey itself.

 

[scrapy]

This is an abuse of a monopoly position on parking at these stations. I'm looking, but I haven't yet found any practicable alternatives other than not travelling, which may be what I end up doing. I'm certainly not paying £22 for 48 hours parking. This is nothing but pure greed by VT and I will not support it.

Greed or supply and demand? If the demand wasn't there they wouldn't charge it. As for monopoly I would disagree as there are other car parks not to far away.

 

[Mojo]

You can pay more than twice that for a day's parking in central London...!

However this is not central London, this is a railway station.

For what it's worth however, across of central London at off peak times parking restrictions can be fairly lenient, especially when compared to other towns and cities. For example, in the City of Westminster, there are never charges between 1830-0830, or on Sundays, for on-street bays, and there are also loads of single yellows that are unrestricted during these times too. Some locations even have the parking restrictions finish at 1330 on Saturdays!

 

[MKB]

Greed or supply and demand? If the demand wasn't there they wouldn't charge it. As for monopoly I would disagree as there are other car parks not to far away.

When I return on a Sunday night, there are usually at least a dozen cars on the ground floor of the multi-storey. Last night there were three. I think they've killed demand. (Not that I'd agree that balancing supply and demand is ethical when you are charging way more than is necessary to cover costs and can exploit a captive market.)

Where are the nearby car parks you refer to? The only ones I could find are half-a-mile away and are intended for short-stay use, as they either charge by the hour or have maximum stay restrictions.

 

[All Line Rover]

I agree that it is pure greed. At certain stations (all stations?) Virgin has introduced more expensive season tickets for non-rail-passenger car park users. If non-rail-passenger car park users are the problem (as Virgin claim), Virgin could equally well charge rail passengers existing rates by e.g. requiring them to insert their rail ticket into the car park meter for validation.

Many stations have nearby car parks operated by local authorities and/or private businesses. Crewe has both, with a privately operated car park right next to the "new" station car park on Weston Road (I don't understand why Virgin didn't just buy the plot). It is unfortunate that Coventry lacks these alternatives.

I expect that Virgin is relying, as with many of their products, for passengers travelling on expenses to pay whatever price is charged without question. That doesn't explain why the off-peak parking rates have been abolished at all Virgin-operated stations.

 

[Bletchleyite]

FWIW the issue with the lack of a late service to Nuneaton is LM's fault, not VT's. LM refused to staff the station late enough to let the passengers out, and the station layout is not such that it can be operated unstaffed AIUI.

 

[ninjazx6r]

Carlisle was increased to £12 this month.

 

[30907]

Preston from £10 to £12, but it's the first increase for some years to be fair.
What isn't fair is abolishing the £5 after 11am rate altogether. Yes, I could use Accrington or Blackburn, but it adds considerably to journey time in most cases.

 

[6Gman]

I long ago concluded that VTWC's rail operations are just a cover for their principal business of operating car parks.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Is there a reasonably timed, affordable bus service iether all the way home or to a point where a cab would only be a few quid? As someone without the abilitty to drive I sympathise with the challenges of late night travel but Um afraid much of the commenting on cost of car parks cuts no ice with me as people as individuals in many cases chose to drive and in a well populated area like the midlands I am surprised.

 

[Llanigraham]

As an example, I regularly travel to London for the weekend, and park at Coventry from Friday evening to Sunday evening. Two years ago, this cost £8 comprising £4 for Friday and £2 for each of the weekend days. This year that had already risen 37% to £11. As of this month, it now costs £22 = £12 for Friday and £5 for the weekend days.

Be glad your station car park isn't overseen by NCP then!!
I occasionally have to use Ludlow station and the charges there are £9 per day, every day, so a 3 day weekend would be £27.

Good job you don't want to leave your car at the NEC, as plenty of the exhibitions charge more than that!

Still, another reason for a rant against Virgin. :roll::roll:

 

[tony_mac]

The NCP website has very different prices - it says a weekly ticket is £14.40?
https://www.ncp.co.uk/find-a-car-park/car-parks/ludlow-station-atw/
Runcorn, Crewe and Stafford have all gone up to £12 a day - not places that will have local competition at near that price.

Presumably they are after business travellers who will be claiming on expenses anyway.

 

[MKB]

Is there a reasonably timed, affordable bus service iether all the way home or to a point where a cab would only be a few quid? As someone without the abilitty to drive I sympathise with the challenges of late night travel but Um afraid much of the commenting on cost of car parks cuts no ice with me as people as individuals in many cases chose to drive and in a well populated area like the midlands I am surprised.

Bus services from Coventry don't run that late to Nuneaton. Even if they did, it would be neither practical (time-wise) nor cost-effective.

Friday evening outbound:
2 miles to Nuneaton station (walk for free or £8 taxi)
Train to Coventry (£6.70 for the two of us with railcard)
Connecting to our Traveller ticket to London

Sunday night return:
0.9 mile walk to Coventry bus station
Bus to Nuneaton (£9.40, 45 minutes)
2 miles home (walk for free or £10 taxi on post-midnight rate)

 

[Hadders]

The OP might want to give Peterborough a try:

£13.50 a day. Off Peak £7 per day with weekends at the princely sum of £6 per day.

 

[alexl92]

Mind You, that's cheap compared to NR's whopping £19.00 a day at Leeds, even at weekends. I've now been put off by making journeys that start at Leeds, as in many cases, the parking can cost more than the journey itself.

Leeds is beyond belief with parking charges in some places. I complained to Q-Park after being charged £11.00 for 3 hours (and then because their ticket reader wouldnt open the barrier on the way out even though everything was paid for) and their response was basically 'Parking is limited in Leeds, deal with it' - a horrendous attitude. I intend to avoid them where possible in future.

 

[rugbymidland]

Rugby up from £6 to £9 , and off-peak scrapped. Local MP on the case

 

[Starmill]

I don't think it's reasonable to complain about the very high cost of the car parks in Leeds. It's the centre of a major British city, land is very expensive and there are much more pressing uses for it than car parking. I don't know if you would call Coventry a major British city or not, but it's probably not too dissimilar. It stands to reason that it will cost a lot.

The problem here is people who live in outlying towns not being given access to decent quality, sensibly priced public transport that runs late into the night to have the assurance that they don't need their car.

 

[All Line Rover]

Holborn Gate car park takes some beating at £39 for any duration above 3 hours, 7 days a week (though still not as expensive as short stay car parking at St Pancras station!).

 

[CyrusWuff]

Those in the know will shop around, at the expense of a longer walk to the station... Woodhouse Lane MSCP in Leeds, for example, has a Weekend rate (via RingGo) of £12.20 from 00:01 Friday to 09:00 Monday and you can leave and return as much as you like throughout that period, and a quick look suggests Moat Street car park in Coventry (about 1/2 a mile from the station) may be suitable, with a maximum charge of £3.50 a day during the week and 50p a day at weekends.

 

[Master29]

Most VTWC stations have increased recently. The 'new' car park at Crewe was previously £2.50 at weekends, now it is £5.00, as I discovered when I went to the recent DRS Open Day.

Mind You, that's cheap compared to NR's whopping £19.00 a day at Leeds, even at weekends. I've now been put off by making journeys that start at Leeds, as in many cases, the parking can cost more than the journey itself.

Who the hell would want to pay that to visit Leeds?

 

[Trog]

I live a ten minute walk from my local station, and every week day the road is like a car park due to people avoiding paying to park at the station. We need some yellow lines as some of the parking is more than a bit dodgy.

 

[AlterEgo]

Who the hell would want to pay that to visit Leeds?

Someone parking at Leeds station isn't going to be visiting Leeds, are they? They're going to be leaving Leeds.

 

[DarloRich]

Bus services from Coventry don't run that late to Nuneaton. Even if they did, it would be neither practical (time-wise) nor cost-effective.

Friday evening outbound:
2 miles to Nuneaton station (walk for free or £8 taxi)
Train to Coventry (£6.70 for the two of us with railcard)
Connecting to our Traveller ticket to London

Sunday night return:
0.9 mile walk to Coventry bus station
Bus to Nuneaton (£9.40, 45 minutes)
2 miles home (walk for free or £10 taxi on post-midnight rate)

You are getting rinsed for that taxi. A minicab costs me between £5-7 (time dependent) for a 4.3 mile journey between MKC and my house. A black cab costs between £15-20. I don't get back cabs.

 

[johnmoly]

Thank heavens I live in Merseyside where all station parking at Merseyrail stations is free as long as using trains.