Car Parking now bookable on Chiltern Trains app

[whole diary]

[bobm]

Have never travelled on a Chiltern Trains service (yet) but for those who do, the iPhone app has just been updated.  It now offers the "facility to book car parking at certain Chiltern stations".

[eightf48544]

Very interesting but how do they guarentee you'll get place?

[ChrisB]

Presumably, use after you've parked?....

[eightf48544]

Just paying for parking after you've parked is that really the

"facility to book car parking at certain Chiltern stations".

Apoca have had phone pay facilty for ages and they charge (or used to, not looked lately) 20 p for the "convenience" of using the the facility.

I would take "book" to mean be assurred of a place, as you do with booking airport parking.

[ChrisB]

I think you're alone in that thinking - or pretty much so.

[bobm]

Sorry ChrisB I don't agree.

The description for the updated app claims to give the facility to book car parking at certain Chiltern stations.  In the same way you "book" a train ticket which then gives you the ability to travel, I would take "booking" car parking in a similar context.  Besides I can see it getting complicated if you had paid to park and then found there were no spaces.  Apart from the fact you might miss your train, how would you prove you had not been able to park - and how long would it take to get that proof?

[grahame]

I would take "book" to mean be assurred of a place, as you do with booking airport parking.

Agreed.   (And agreed with bobm too).

The rail industry habitually keeps on selling tickets ... to the extent that more people turn up to travel than seats are available (daily) and even that more people turn up than can physically fit onto the train (not uncommon).  Just because they do that doesn't mean it's right, or should be expected / accepted.   But that bad habit of overbooking should not transfer to parking where another space may NOT come along in 20 minutes.

[trainer]

Checking a dictionary confirmed my opinion (agreeing with Bob and Graham) that the verb 'to book' implies a reservation in daily parlance, not simply a pre-payment.  I would be miffed to book a hotel room or restaurant table and then find someone had arrived earlier un-booked and been been given the space.  I know some fast food chains have corrupted the word 'restaurant', but it ill behoves a railway company to start demeaning the language (if indeed they have).

[Network SouthEast]

Let's not beat about the bush here, there is a difference between booking and pre-paying. I'm with the majority here - I'd have thought booking a car park space would sound like a space is available for you. A train journey is different as you can still get from A to B, but booking a car park space isn't much help if you have to wait an hour or two for a space to open up.

[Brucey]

Apoca have had phone pay facilty for ages and they charge (or used to, not looked lately) 20 p for the "convenience" of using the the facility.

That is quite an interesting point, that will lead me to deviate from the thread's topic slightly.  The car park at Hayes & Harlington is ^2.80 or ^1.90 (depending on time) if you feed the parking meter (which was broken last time I was there), the same price (with no fee) for paying by phone to Apcoa Connect BUT ^2 all day if you buy at the ticket office (and they accept credit/debit cards).  The only issue is that the ticket office is a real trek from the car park.  Confused the hell out of me.  In other Apcoa Connect "implementations", such as First Capital Connect, they do charge a transaction fee.

Back to the original topic.  At London Midland stations, Meteor parking have had online parking purchasing available for some time.  They specifically state "Please note:  Purchasing any tickets/permits in advance does not guarantee you a parking space".  Their parking meters take credit/debit cards anyway, so it wasn't of much interest to me when I used Bletchley.  I'm guessing it could be useful for adding extra time to your vehicle if your trip keeps you away for longer than planned.

[ellendune]

At Swindon its actually cheaper to pay by phone!