Overnight parking at Merseyrail stations

[Bletchleyite]

Should you ever have cause to try to use the north car park at Slough overnight, you may have an unpleasant surprise. When I last used it (admittedly a few years ago before Covid) it was charged - but there was no facility to buy an overnight ticket. So if you needed to park overnight (as you might well need to do if you were staying in the adjacent Holiday Inn Express which has a miniscule car park) you would be hard pressed to avoid getting in trouble with the car parking company.

This is true if you park at Aylesbury Vale Parkway overnight from Sunday to Monday due to limitations of RingGo and associated systems. I asked Chiltern about it when I once did that, and they said just to pay in the morning, as as long as a day rate was paid for all days of the stay before attempting to leave (driving past the exit camera) there would be no issue. I was a bit nervous about this so logged on at precisely midnight to pay, and it worked fine.

I would agree it's a bit silly though.

Returning to Merseyrail, for most of their car parks refusing overnight parking isn't daft in that they're overwhelmingly small car parks for a dozen or so cars. Essentially shoppers and commuters park up there and then go home after going into town. I am inclined to say that (in general - there are always exceptions) Merseyrail stations are frequent enough that anyone going into town for a drink can choose to walk to the station and not worry about their car which they will have left safely at homw.

If one planned to have a few drinks one would not drive to the station. But sometimes plans change. I have certainly gone out for a drink after work that I didn't plan and so parked overnight at Bletchley and retrieved the car in the morning. I don't even need to remember to pay for the second day - I use the automatic drive in drive out app thing (forget what it's called). This is a sensible and friendly policy that allows for a change of plan, like humans often do.

Don't forget about Skelmersdale - so Maghull North and Headbolt are two more where this might happen - drive to the station, decide to have a drink, bus/taxi back and come for the car in the morning. There are also a lot of people who drive from Burscough to Ormskirk.

(There is a workaround for Ormskirk in that behind the station car park is hidden a Council car park with no restrictions at all - but it is a bit dingy, poorly lit and poorly maintained, so I'd not be confident of a car left overnight not being broken into).

I think the exceptions are Parkway and St Helens Junction - and for Parkway in particular if I were Merseyrail I would be concerned about in the summer it turning into an unplanned temporary caravan park. Like it or not, Liverpool is now a tourist attraction - and there are plenty of people who want to do Liverpool on the cheap. A free caravan site would suit many of them nicely - to the detriment of the locals.

While it wouldn't stop those with VW type vans, several Merseyrail stations have height barriers which would prevent typical touring caravans and larger camper vans getting in in the first place. Or if you're referring not to tourists but those who live in caravans and tend to park them unlawfully, they aren't going to pay the fine even if it is issued.

Is there any evidence of this happening at stations around Manchester or London? I haven't seen it being a significant issue, though admittedly you'd not necessarily know a "stealth camper" wasn't just a parked-up van.

 

[Djgr]

This is true if you park at Aylesbury Vale Parkway overnight from Sunday to Monday due to limitations of RingGo and associated systems. I asked Chiltern about it when I once did that, and they said just to pay in the morning, as as long as a day rate was paid for all days of the stay before attempting to leave (driving past the exit camera) there would be no issue. I was a bit nervous about this so logged on at precisely midnight to pay, and it worked fine.

I would agree it's a bit silly though.



If one planned to have a few drinks one would not drive to the station. But sometimes plans change. I have certainly gone out for a drink after work that I didn't plan and so parked overnight at Bletchley and retrieved the car in the morning. I don't even need to remember to pay for the second day - I use the automatic drive in drive out app thing (forget what it's called). This is a sensible and friendly policy that allows for a change of plan, like humans often do.

Don't forget about Skelmersdale - so Maghull North and Headbolt are two more where this might happen - drive to the station, decide to have a drink, bus/taxi back and come for the car in the morning. There are also a lot of people who drive from Burscough to Ormskirk.

(There is a workaround for Ormskirk in that behind the station car park is hidden a Council car park with no restrictions at all - but it is a bit dingy, poorly lit and poorly maintained, so I'd not be confident of a car left overnight not being broken into).



While it wouldn't stop those with VW type vans, several Merseyrail stations have height barriers which would prevent typical touring caravans and larger camper vans getting in in the first place. Or if you're referring not to tourists but those who live in caravans and tend to park them unlawfully, they aren't going to pay the fine even if it is issued.

Is there any evidence of this happening at stations around Manchester or London? I haven't seen it being a significant issue, though admittedly you'd not necessarily know a "stealth camper" wasn't just a parked-up van.

There have been big issues with camper vans and the like clogging up the promenade at New Brighton. Introducing overnight parking charges seems to have reduced this problem.

As far as Liverpool South Parkway is concerned, an anecdotal issue is that it fills up every day. The last thing Merseytravel/LCR would want is to lose a load of spaces to the "overnighters and long stayers". Many of these people would be John Lennon Airport parking dodgers.

The other issue is the much-pushed concept of Liverpool South Parkway as a long-distance station. This is problematic without appropriate available parking. Given that Runcorn is about 10 minutes away and has shedloads suggests that leaving things as they are is probably better.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The other issue is the much-pushed concept of Liverpool South Parkway as a long-distance station. This is problematic without appropriate available parking. Given that Runcorn is about 10 minutes away and has shedloads suggests that leaving things as they are is probably better.

That's one station with a problem out of how many, of course...

South Parkway clearly needs a large multi storey. It's odd that it doesn't already have that!

 

[Djgr]

That's one station with a problem out of how many, of course...

South Parkway clearly needs a large multi storey. It's odd that it doesn't already have that!

I would agree that it would not be a problem for the vast majority of Merseyrail stations.

Think LSP is a victim of its own success!

 

[Skie]

With the introduction of Avanti services to Euston in December, and Merseyrails no overnight parking stance, LSP does need a “long stay” multi story now for a reasonable fee. Though quite how they’d fit it in or even build it I don’t know, it’s quite a constrained site!

 

[Bletchleyite]

With the introduction of Avanti services to Euston in December, and Merseyrails no overnight parking stance, LSP does need a “long stay” multi story now for a reasonable fee. Though quite how they’d fit it in or even build it I don’t know, it’s quite a constrained site!

The obvious thing to do would probably be to seek to compulsorily purchase the very small amount of housing and poor quality pub/social venue that are in the bottom left of the triangular site it is on and build one there. Some of it appears to be social housing which would make that process easier. You could then double deck the existing one to add a bit more once that was built.

Indeed, looking at it on Streetview it looks to me that there are only three houses (a pair of semis and a detached) that are likely to be privately owned. You could probably work around those leaving them in place, though I doubt they would love having a multi storey car park in their back yard so they might be happy to sell for a decent price without the need to go for compulsory.

Another option would be to build one on top of the bus station which is a fairly reasonably sized piece of land, though that would probably cost more than just putting a bog standard steel framed one on that adjacent land even given the need to purchase it and the small number of homes on it.

I would agree that with it becoming a "London Parkway" there would probably be a need to introduce parking charges which would limit demand to some extent too.