Soaring costs at station car parks
Motorists using rail station car parks are facing huge increases in parking prices - by as much as 50% in some places.
Online, September 20, 2009 (Newswire.com) - Rail companies face accusations of implementing these increases in an attempt to offset decreases in regulated rail fares which are set to take place in January.
According to the trade union Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA), Virgin Trains alone is responsible for increasing the parking costs by between 25% and 50% in 10,000 car parking spaces along its west coast line between London and Glasgow, with annual parking prices increasing from £650 to £980 - a rise of 50%. The union said that First Great Western rail company had increased its parking costs by up to 30%, citing the example of Reading station, a prime commuter hub on Great Western's Bristol to London line, where annual parking fees rose from £1,265 to £1,644.
These enormous increases are disproportionate to the minuscule 0.4% cut in regulated fares that rail companies will have to make in January, and will wipe out whatever small benefit passengers might have gained by the fare decreases. Gerry Doherty, TSSA's general secretary, said, "This is in effect a back door fares increase which is not covered by the regulated fares formula. The rail companies are picking the pockets of millions of passengers simply because they can get away with it."
Doherty said the only way to stop the rail companies from "ripping off their captive audience" would be to include car parking charges in the annual rail fares formula, which puts a ceiling of 1% above inflation on price increases. He called on the transport secretary, Lord Adonis, to implement this change.
In their defense, Virgin Trains said that price increases had only been applied in cases where improvements to the facilities had been made and more parking spaces were made available (as at Birmingham International station car park, where 800 extra spaces were recently added). A Virgin Trains spokesman said the company was spending £90m across 17 stations, in a joint project with Network Rail, to improve the facilities offered to customers. Additionally, off-peak charges were being introduced after 10 a.m. and at weekends at stations that had seen improvements, while at car parks where no improvements are being made the daily fee of £6 would remain unchanged.
First Great Western also defended its car park increases, stressing the fact that for the past three years the company had absorbed the growing costs of car park maintenance but could no longer sustain this in the long term. The spokesman also said that Great Western was determined to keep its prices lower than those in city centre car parks, giving the example of Reading station, where parking for nine hours would cost £18.40, or £1.60 less than nearby car parks.
With such big increases hitting commuters' pockets - as well as other parking and ticketing measures recently implemented - the option of season parking tickets from private parking firms looks increasingly attractive, especially when all the benefits - security, convenient location, a fixed price - are taken into account.
For press enquiries, please contact Peter Cooper on 020 7183 7247
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