Paying for car parking at railway stations

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

Hmm. All those without a car save on insurance, petrol and wear and tear - whether they are season ticket holders or not.

Your move.

 

I also mentioned people who buy a >^10 ticket.

2-1

And the walkers buying a >^10 ticket? What freebie of comparable cost to  car parking do they get?

So.....disallowed. Offside. Still 1-1 

[Btline]

Umm, not having to drive and use petrol, insurance etc.

I fear we're going round in circles.

If your lucky enough to live within walking distance of a station - count yourself lucky. Many of us have to drive a long way, and in return for going out of our way to get the train (we could drive all the way) we are greeted with unfair car parking charges!

Why should the West Midlands area, where many MORE people live near a station (as the network is denser), get free parking; but the parking at a place like Kidderminster, which is a railhead for a HUGE area, have to pay? Likewise for busses. The bus network to stations like Cradley and Stourbridge stns is really good, but Kidderminster's is really bad.

That's the point I'm making.

[devon_metro]

The reason its free to park is perhaps because many people live near the station and as such demand is less.

Its simple supply and demand; if my local station was free to park then i'd have to arrive at the crack of dawn to guarantee a space.

[Btline]

Not if there were plenty of spaces. Like at Stourbridge Junction, where there are 800 spaces. Less demand? I think not! People drive to these free car parks from miles around. (and many side streets in the area, so the number of spaces is technically nearer 1000) When if the Kidderminster car park was enlarged and made free, they wouldn't. = less car fumes. = more spaces at Stour J for growth.

[devon_metro]

But at the end of the day, parking at the station is a service I must pay for, if I walk then I save myself some money and there is an incentive. The train fare gets me from station to station and nothing else. I don't find that unreasonable.

If I go into town and buy some goods, should I expect this money I spend in the local shops to subsidise my parking?

[matt473]

Not if there were plenty of spaces. Like at Stourbridge Junction, where there are 800 spaces. Less demand? I think not! People drive to these free car parks from miles around. (and many side streets in the area, so the number of spaces is technically nearer 1000) When if the Kidderminster car park was enlarged and made free, they wouldn't. = less car fumes. = more spaces at Stour J for growth.

Where do you get the space for the initial building of the car parks though? Many stations are in Urban areas and have little room for parking without having to demolish surrounding buildings to build a car park. If parking spaces are already there then there is little problem but you also need to take into account how many people would use these car parks for actually using train services and not just asa conveniant place to park in town. Nothing is ever as easy as it may seem

[Btline]

Where do you get the space for the initial building of the car parks though?

If parking spaces are already there then there is little problem but you also need to take into account how many people would use these car parks for actually using train services and not just as a conveniant place to park in town.

Both been answered before!

1. Using the decking system a la LM^▸ (London Midland - recent franchise) and CH. And Kiddersminter station is NOT convenient for the town centre at all. Ditto for W'ster S H.

2. Parking would only be free for Season ticket holders and those who buy a ticket >^10.

If I go into town and buy some goods, should I expect this money I spend in the local shops to subsidise my parking?

It does at Merry Hill. (large Westfield shopping centre in the West Mids) When they tried to introduce parking there was an outcry and complains that there was no rail/tram link.

At all my local supermarkets and Currys/Comet/B&Q etc. the parking is all free (perhaps with a 3 hour limit)

And before you argue that shopping centres are different, Merry Hill is officially the town centre for the nearby town of Brierley Hill.

[Chris from Nailsea]

2. Parking would only be free for Season ticket holders and those who buy a ticket >^10.

Sorry, Btline, but your logic is flawed:

a) If I may presume to use him as an example, John R lives quite close to our station, and thus walks to / from it.  However, as a season ticket holder, under your rules, he would qualify for free parking, even though he would never use it.

b) I live rather further away from our station, so I would rather like the option of driving down there, when it's peeing with rain, for example.  However, as my daily return into Bristol is only ^4.00, I wouldn't qualify for any of your free parking, even for that occasional day.

C.

[John R]

I'd sell you my space for a very reasonable consideration.   

[JayMac]

2. Parking would only be free for Season ticket holders and those who buy a ticket >^10.

Sorry, Btline, but your logic is flawed:

a) If I may presume to use him as an example, John R lives quite close to our station, and thus walks to / from it.  However, as a season ticket holder, under your rules, he would qualify for free parking, even though he would never use it.

b) I live rather further away from our station, so I would rather like the option of driving down there, when it's peeing with rain, for example.  However, as my daily return into Bristol is only ^4.00, I wouldn't qualify for any of your free parking, even for that occasional day.

C.

He shoots, he scores (strangely in off a big red beach ball!)

Nailsea 2 Btline 1.  (sorry just a bit of fun. And maybe the ref is biased.....)

[willc]

Umm, not having to drive and use petrol, insurance etc.

I fear we're going round in circles.

If your lucky enough to live within walking distance of a station - count yourself lucky. Many of us have to drive a long way, and in return for going out of our way to get the train (we could drive all the way) we are greeted with unfair car parking charges!

Why should the West Midlands area, where many MORE people live near a station (as the network is denser), get free parking; but the parking at a place like Kidderminster, which is a railhead for a HUGE area, have to pay? Likewise for busses. The bus network to stations like Cradley and Stourbridge stns is really good, but Kidderminster's is really bad.

That's the point I'm making.

Why? Because the West Midlands is a PTA^▸ (Passenger Transport Authority) area, where the PTA has made a policy decision to provide free station parking and buses to stations, subsidised out of the money the PTA gets from taxes, both in block grant from central taxes raised by the Government and from council tax in the West Midlands. WMPTA also pays for stations in its area to be staffed most of the day.

Other PTAs have different policies, eg West Yorkshire stations are a mix of pay and free parking and many stations there are unstaffed, even smaller ones on the outskirts of towns and cities.

There's nothing stopping Worcestershire adopting similar arrangements to the West Midlands at stations like Kidderminster, but the county council probably doesn't have the money to do it.

[Chris2]

My main gripe with Plus Bus is the fact that I cannot buy it on the bus when travelling towards the station!

I noticed yesterday on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website when buying tickets, that you could add the plusbus option onto your tickets, which saves going to the station.

[JayMac]

My main gripe with Plus Bus is the fact that I cannot buy it on the bus when travelling towards the station!

I noticed yesterday on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website when buying tickets, that you could add the plusbus option onto your tickets, which saves going to the station.

I've also noticed that 'PlusBus' has been added to ticket purchasing websites. Little anomaly I spotted was that NXEC^▸ (National Express East Coast)'s site is offering PlusBus for Bristol and Taunton 5p cheaper for railcard holders than FGW's site!

[Tim]

why shouldn't season ticket holders get perks? yes they get a discount but whenever you buy anything in bulk (which is effectively what seasons are) then you get a discount, they are the bread and butter of the railway and basicly subsidise joe bloggs and his family who travel once a year but expect the world!

Because the discount they get is already a huge Perk.  On the Bath-London route a weekly season costs the same as one and a half anytime returns.

The bulk-buying offers in Tescos are "buy one get one free" "3 for 2".  I have never seen a supermarket offer - "buy one and a half, get 5 and a half free".

It is the commuters who are being subsidised by Joe Bloggs.  They pay the least but travel at the most expensive time fo the day. 

i am not saying commuters ought not to be subsidised and I'd much rather they were on the train than the road, but lets not pretent that they are getting anything other than a very generous deal when compared to many other travellers.

[devon_metro]

My main gripe with Plus Bus is the fact that I cannot buy it on the bus when travelling towards the station!

I noticed yesterday on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website when buying tickets, that you could add the plusbus option onto your tickets, which saves going to the station.

I too noticed that, might have to use it!