Car Park Price Rises Dec16

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

From an email from Mark Hopwood

Since 2011 we have been working with our partner APCOA^▸ (Car parking company used at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - controlled stations in the area) to maintain the good condition of our car parks without increasing charges. This means we have been able to hold prices for five years. This is no longer feasible and there will be changes from 11 December, when the winter timetable comes into effect.  The average daily increase is 0.19p.

Details for each station are on the parking information page of our website  https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey/journey-information/travel-connections/car-parking and will shortly be displayed on signage in our car parks and we will be issuing a media release. We have also written to annual season ticket holders, offering them the opportunity to renew their season parking permit at the current rates regardless of the season tickets expiry date.   

Making these changes will mean we can support a series of car park investments such as upgrading our pay and display machines and our payment card systems, additional automatic number plate recognition and a car park extension programme which will add an extra 2,100 spaces to car parks across our network. 

It is never easy to ask customers to pay more, however, it is important that we maintain and improve our car parks and I thought it important that you should know about the increases and the reasoning behind the changes.

[SandTEngineer]

I like the average increase quote when my local station is increasing by nearly 10% and will be the third most expensive on the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) network

[John R]

0.19p per day works out at around a penny for the week, so perfectly reasonable if correct. Sadly I suspect it's not correct.

[LiskeardRich]

My local station car park has been free  for around 3 months! Photo taken every time I park and no penalty charges. Received

[LiskeardRich]

0.19p per day works out at around a penny for the week, so perfectly reasonable if correct. Sadly I suspect it's not correct.

I suspect is meant to be £0.19

[John R]

Indeed I suspect you are right...

[SandTEngineer]

The point I was making in my post above is that 'average' price rises are always misleading and are are just used to try to 'dumb down' the bad news element of such announcements

[ellendune]

The point I was making in my post above is that 'average' price rises are always misleading and are are just used to try to 'dumb down' the bad news element of such announcements

Looks like Swindon have stayed the same.  One issue about parking charges though is that if the council or other providers in the area put their charges up then station parking sometimes has to rise or it ceases to provide parking for rail travellers.  That is unless they use the system they have at Parkway or Oxford (reminder to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) about need for this in Swindon).

[patch38]

Looks like Swindon have stayed the same. 

If you follow the link in the first post, Swindon has gone down. It suggests the 'by phone' tariff (i.e. APCOA^▸ (Car parking company used at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - controlled stations in the area) Connect) for Swindon West Main (2165) is £7.70. It's currently £7.90.

Am I missing something?

[IndustryInsider]

I'm amazed the prices have been held for five years.  I thought parking charges was one area all the TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) were keen to rip off passengers the most as they're unregulated.

[NickB]

Merry Christmas to you too Mr Hopwood.

[ellendune]

Looks like Swindon have stayed the same. 

If you follow the link in the first post, Swindon has gone down. It suggests the 'by phone' tariff (i.e. APCOA^▸ (Car parking company used at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - controlled stations in the area) Connect) for Swindon West Main (2165) is £7.70. It's currently £7.90.

Am I missing something?

I don't know i only use the West Car Park as a) it is cheaper; b) the main car park is usually full most of the times I get there; and c) its easier to use the one that is the default on my phone!

[didcotdean]

I'm amazed the prices have been held for five years.  I thought parking charges was one area all the TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) were keen to rip off passengers the most as they're unregulated.

They rose quite quickly in the first few years of APCOA^▸ (Car parking company used at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - controlled stations in the area). Some of the car parks had some security investment in them but by no means all.

By comparison parking at Didcot in 1993 was £1.10 per day weekdays and de facto free at the weekend as no one was employed to collect at the entrance.

[patch38]

OK - I've solved the mystery and uncovered something slightly sneaky:

The prices shown at https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey/journey-information/travel-connections/car-parking are the current rates, not the new ones.

The reason I thought there was a discrepancy on the APCOA^▸ (Car parking company used at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - controlled stations in the area) Connect price is because they charge 10p per SMS they send to you (you can opt out of the service but it automatically opts you in when you join) and I don't recall it being blindinly obvious that the service is chargeable. So the daily 'Connect' rate at 2165 (Swindon Main) is £7.70 plus two lots of 10p = £7.90.

Caveat emptor. But if it caught me out, I bet there are others who are unaware of that little add-on.

[LiskeardRich]

OK - I've solved the mystery and uncovered something slightly sneaky:

The prices shown at https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey/journey-information/travel-connections/car-parking are the current rates, not the new ones.

The reason I thought there was a discrepancy on the APCOA^▸ (Car parking company used at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - controlled stations in the area) Connect price is because they charge 10p per SMS they send to you (you can opt out of the service but it automatically opts you in when you join) and I don't recall it being blindinly obvious that the service is chargeable. So the daily 'Connect' rate at 2165 (Swindon Main) is £7.70 plus two lots of 10p = £7.90.

Caveat emptor. But if it caught me out, I bet there are others who are unaware of that little add-on.

And from memory you can only opt out on your online account. No option to do so on the telephone system.