Markus

From what I recall of the Hastings to London line, all the stations that had car parks would charge for parking, no doubt an large fee too.

I'm going to presume this is probably the same regardless of the part of the country you are in and thus the network operator.

Does anyone know who gets the money from the parking fees? Is it the rail operator, or is the parking outsourced to a company and thus they get the fees?

The reason for asking is I'm wondering if there is any incentive for the rail companies, let's say Southern Rail (or whatever the network is called that handles the Hastings to London line these days) to ditch the fee and provide free parking at commuter stations 24/7 to entice people to use the train instead of taking their cars.

I doubt it'd happen, too much of a money spinner. I was shocked that over here, GO Transit, who run a train service into Toronto from surrounding areas, do not charge for parking. You can purchase a reserved parking spot near the front of the car park for about $60 per month, though not all stations have reserved parking, and the majority of the car park is not reserved parking, so they aren't trying to force people to purchase.

I think this is a very good idea and it does seem to get a lot more people using the trains instead of taking the car into Toronto. The other factor is the trains themselves. Nice big, clean, double-decker affairs. I've travelled to and from Toronto, both during rush-hour and also back home after a baseball/hockey game and I've never failed to find a seat and thus never had to stand and there have been a lot of people on the trains.

This is in stark contrast to going to or from London where more often than not I'd stand on the way there and back. I recall one trip leaving London Bridge at 9pm on a tuesday night and finding the train rammed and having to stand. Not a good end to a long and stressful day. Granted this was back in the slam-door days, so the new rolling stock might well ease things somewhat, but would it really be that dramatic an improvement?

Given those conditions, it would pain me to have to use the train every day to get into London, whereas over here, I would have no problems in using the GO Train to travel to work, and in fact my fiance does just that.

MrShades

FREE???? Have you ever tried to find a parking space at a mainline railway station in the UK in the past few years Markus... it's near impossible unless you're there at 5am!

I frequently use First Great Western to do Swindon<->Paddington, and often find the Swindon station car-park completely full and struggle to find a parking space within reasonable distance. This is when it's circa £7 a day to park... and the return ticket (for an hour each way) is just over £100 in standard-class, and you are very lucky to get a seat.

A year or so ago I was heading into Paddington on the train when I took a call from the guy that I was meeting, who was attempting to get the train from Ipswich into town... He was calling as he'd driven from Ipswich station to the next, and the next, and the next and then the next stop to try and find ANY station car park with a space. He'd given up and was going back to Ipswich - he was calling to cancel our meeting...

They charge because the can.... they don't need to incentivise rail users to fill the car-parks, they're full already!

Jerome

Hi Markus,

When I travelled into the City from Farnborough, Hants, the main car park outside the station was owned and run by South West Trains. A car parking season ticket was costing me £50+ a month in 2000. There was also a premuim area immediately outside the doors, which had a waiting list. If you didn't display a valid ticket, or parked outside of a bay, you would almost always get clamped. Every day the clamping company ran out of clamps. It was a £50 realease fee, which I got clobbered by twice.

The car park would be full by about 8.30. Next door was a council run car park.

I doubt SWT could afford to make the parking free, as the car park is always full on weekdays and all the commuter trains (between 1995 and 2000) where standing room only from Farnborough onwards. I doubt they could cope with more commuters, whom they are already fleecing (my train season ticket alone was £2500 in 2000).

The only way you'd get free parking is if the Govt stepped in, which I think is unlikely. The Govt are already talking about taxing motorists who park at work for free, because this is a "perk" apparently.

Markus

A very good point about the size of the car parks, and that they simply are not big enough. In some cases I don't think they can make them larger, High Brooms is a perfect example, there is simply no-where to expand into.

No doubt if they did try to expand there would be some moaning bugger about how it's not "green" or some other crap.

Actually, on a slight tangent, are there car pooling car parks around over there, where a bunch of you could meet up, park, for free, and then take the one car into the city?

MattW

Park by the Research Council and walk over the bridge. that car park is empty.

MrShades

I know, that's what I normally do - didn't have the same effect though!

...and you need CASH in that car-park... the station car park takes cards.