Virgin Trains excessive increase in parking charges

[Bletchleyite]

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.

Minicab companies in MK are very highly competitive resulting in uncharacteristically low fares, also skewed by how quick they can do relatively long journeys and return for another fare - you won't get that "per mile" rate in many if any other places.

 

[DarloRich]

Minicab companies in MK are very highly competitive resulting in uncharacteristically low fares, also skewed by how quick they can do relatively long journeys and return for another fare - you won't get that "per mile" rate in many if any other places.

Darlington, Newcastle & Middlesbrough were cheaper

 

[A0]

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.

£ 5 for each weekend day is not unreasonable - and is probably more than competitive with parking in the centre of Coventry.

Wellingborough over on EMT is £ 9.50 for a day's parking and £ 5 for weekend days by comparison.

London Midland at Northampton is £ 9.20 for a day and £ 6.20 weekend days.

So Coventry and Birmingham Intl are not unreasonable - if anything they're competitive with other stations.

Unfortunately station parking charges are unlikely to go down any time soon - they are clearly achieving the expected demand, so you don't really have a lot of choice.

 

[coppercapped]

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

The price I quoted was for a car park very close to Hammersmith Tube station - so although not a 'railway-owned' car park it is very convenient for the railway.

 

[nuneatonmark]

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.

You are correct, there was going to be a 22.50 due in around 0030 but LM wouldn't staff the station and no compromise solution could be found. It's a right PITA! It's ok though to stop at unstaffed stations like Atherstone all day though! It doesn't help that the last train used to be 2230.

 

[alex17595]

Sometimes Im glad I have a motorbike, even I just use it so I don't have to pay for parking.

 

[Starmill]

It's ridiculous really. Nuneaton would need at most an additional 90 minutes of staffing.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It's ridiculous really. Nuneaton would need at most an additional 90 minutes of staffing.

But does that require an additional shift? Could be very costly.

What needs to happen is to modify the station so it can be operated unstaffed. It's not as if it's underground.

 

[reddragon]

Cheap Cheap Cheap!, Reading is the most expensive in the UK. So expensive that its cheaper to get a taxi to the station from 10 miles away that pay to park!


Short Stay Tariff

Up to 20 Mins: Free

Up to 1 Hour: £4.00

Up to 2 Hours: £7.20

Up to 3 Hours: £13.50

Long Stay Tariff

Up to 1 hour: £4.50

Up to 2 hours: £7.50

Up to 4 hours: £11.00

Up to 9 hours: £18.00

Up to 12 hours: £20.50

Up to 24 hours: £24.00

Weekend

Up to 2 Hour - £4.50

Up to 6 Hours - £7.50

Up to 24 hrs - £12.00



Monthly: £220.00

Quarterly: £575.00

Annual: £1,850.00

 

[Blindtraveler]

Im not aquainted all that well with the station at Nuneaton as when I scratched it a couple of years ago I came in from COV and left again on an XC 170 toward Birmingham. Whats the issue with staff being needed for all trains?

 

[All Line Rover]

Im not aquainted all that well with the station at Nuneaton as when I scratched it a couple of years ago I came in from COV and left again on an XC 170 toward Birmingham. Whats the issue with staff being needed for all trains?

Possibly that you have to walk through the ticket hall to enter/exit the station, which is locked at night?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Possibly that you have to walk through the ticket hall to enter/exit the station, which is locked at night?

Quite possibly, though there are stations where you do that are left unlocked, e.g. Bletchley.

 

[ag51ruk]

Cheap Cheap Cheap!, Reading is the most expensive in the UK. So expensive that its cheaper to get a taxi to the station from 10 miles away that pay to park!


Short Stay Tariff

Up to 20 Mins: Free

Up to 1 Hour: £4.00

Up to 2 Hours: £7.20

Up to 3 Hours: £13.50

I think Manchester Piccadilly Short Stay can beat that! From the APCOA website

Manchester Piccadilly Station (Short Stay)

Station Approach
Manchester M1 2QF

Parking tariff

Short Stay Tariff:

Up to 20 mins: Free
Up to 40 mins: £2.60
Up to 1 hour: £4.60
Up to 2 hours: £12.50
Up to 3 hours: £35.00
Each Additional Hour £20.00

 

[route:oxford]

Cheap Cheap Cheap!, Reading is the most expensive in the UK. So expensive that its cheaper to get a taxi to the station from 10 miles away that pay to park!

This is Oxford's tariff, if you don't use the code on the platform:-

Monday to Saturday (Paying by Mobile Phone without Discount Code):

Before 10.00hrs: £29.00
10:00hrs - 13:00hrs: £21.80
13:00hrs - 17:00hrs: £14.50
17:00hrs thereafter: £7.20
All Day Sunday: £7.20

If the OP is driving as far as Birmingham International, then perhaps driving a touch further would be worthwhile?

72 hours at Thornhill Park & Ride, Oxford is £12. Then it's £18 on a return on the Tube or X90. Alternatively Oxford Parkway is also £12 for 72 hours with Chiltern Fares starting from £5 if booked well in advance.

 

[Master29]

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

Fair enough. Makes sense.

 

[Nippy]

LM are the same, they've scrapped the Off Peak rate at Tring. (Often you're lucky to get in after 10 so the demand is already there)

Local roads around the station have parking restrictions between 10am and noon. Buses are infrequent between the station and town outside the peaks although they are good value when running. Taxi's are expensive at a round £7 for the 2.5 mile ride home.

 

[infobleep]

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

Then the question becomea, who hell would want to park in Leeds to leave it?

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

[Robertj21a]

I think car park charges near stations have now gone up in many locations. Presumably, they're confident that they can still get enough people parking to warrant the increased charge so, as others have said, it's simply supply and demand. If people don't want to pay the charge they need to consider lifts, walking, bus, cycling or trying a different station.

 

[HowardGWR]

Cheap Cheap Cheap!, Reading is the most expensive in the UK. So expensive that its cheaper to get a taxi to the station from 10 miles away that pay to park!


Up to 24 hrs - £12.00

I don't see how that works out. A taxi has of course to be both ways and 10 miles in a Reading taxi (twice) surely is a lot more expensive than the parking and the petrol. Perhaps I misunderstood your example.

 

[WesternS]

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.

As a regular user of the Birmingham International car park, I can see what Virgin are trying to achieve there, albeit at a cost. For airport users, the rail station car park has progressively become a 50%+ cheaper alternative to the long stay car parks at Birmingham airport itself (now £16.50+ for a day in car park 2/3/4) so lots of people (myself included I will freely admit) would use the station one instead of the airports' (which I used to use when they were £8/day), especially since it's actually more convenient to use the station park and the air-rail link than the airport car parks ! So I'd suggest that there may well have been some added pressure for the increase at International from the Airport who've got lots of empty spaces in their beautiful new m/s car park.

Of course, these days, where I can, the alternatives of the NXWM bus to New St and the 8+ tph between NS and International are far more attractive..... Whether of course £12 is more excessive than £8, £10 or £11 is another matter - and I can't comment for elsewhere except to say that no doubt Warwick Parkway prices will be increasing soon too....

 

[childwallblues]

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

Not quite all. You pay at least at Southport and Hooton. Whilst you pay at Chester the station is run by ATW.

 

[HowardGWR]

I never pay for parking, anywhere. I just walk further as necessary. As I have an old banger, I don't worry about it being stolen from an unlimited street parking location. Makes life very peaceful, generally, and you get some exercise. If we have cases, I drop them off with the life partner, go and park in an outlying street and walk in.

How many stations are there (not city centres obviously, but one should use the train to get to those, that's the point) where a 15 minute walk is not possible, to save you paying parking charges? I'll bet that a shorter walk than that is possible at most of them.

 

[A0]

Possibly that you have to walk through the ticket hall to enter/exit the station, which is locked at night?

It's clearly not that - see this view from Google Maps

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.5...4!1slvqnRJa2JrJghY7zT3aDgw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

You can see a route straight through to the platform without going in the ticket office.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

It's clearly not that - see this view from Google Maps

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.5...4!1slvqnRJa2JrJghY7zT3aDgw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

You can see a route straight through to the platform without going in the ticket office.

Thinking about it - could it be whether the trains can 'self despatch' ?

LM routinely self despatch i.e. the guard allows the train to depart. But everywhere I can think of with Virgin (Euston, MKC, Rugby, Coventry) there's always a despatcher on the platform.

Is there something about the Pendos / Voyagers which means they need to be despatched by someone on the platform?