Paying for car parking at railway stations

[whole diary]

[Btline]

Sorry, Btline, but your logic is flawed:

a) If I may presume to use him as an example, John R lives quite close to our station, and thus walks to / from it.  However, as a season ticket holder, under your rules, he would qualify for free parking, even though he would never use it.

b) I live rather further away from our station, so I would rather like the option of driving down there, when it's peeing with rain, for example.  However, as my daily return into Bristol is only ^4.00, I wouldn't qualify for any of your free parking, even for that occasional day.

C.

It doesn't have to be >^10, I was just using it as an eg.

Basically to stop someone buying a ^1 ticket just to park!

[Chris from Nailsea]

I'd like to see you try to buy a ^1 ticket at NLS^▸ (Nailsea & Backwell station)! 

And, to be fair, it's all rather academic at NLS anyway, as the station car park is owned by the council and parking is free (albeit limited in terms of spaces - especially after about 08:00) 

However, I think the above discussion is very useful, in illustrating the difficulties that arise where station car parks owned by the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) charge for parking (Yatton, just down the line from NLS, for example), and the view of some season ticket holders that their season ticket should include parking.

Maybe the answer is to offer two versions of the season ticket: one without, and one including, parking at the 'home' station - with their respective prices calculated accordingly?

[Mookiemoo]

It does at Merry Hill. (large Westfield shopping centre in the West Mids) When they tried to introduce parking there was an outcry and complains that there was no rail/tram link.

There is a reason its known as Merry Hell - especially on the run up to Christmas

[JayMac]

Sorry, Btline, but your logic is flawed:

a) If I may presume to use him as an example, John R lives quite close to our station, and thus walks to / from it.  However, as a season ticket holder, under your rules, he would qualify for free parking, even though he would never use it.

b) I live rather further away from our station, so I would rather like the option of driving down there, when it's peeing with rain, for example.  However, as my daily return into Bristol is only ^4.00, I wouldn't qualify for any of your free parking, even for that occasional day.

C.

It doesn't have to be >^10, I was just using it as an eg.

Basically to stop someone buying a ^1 ticket just to park!

Okay. Let's make it ^20 and test the idea. I'm travelling from Tiverton Parkway to Plymouth on an Anytime Day Return (SDR) and I don't get free parking because the fare is ^19.50. However if I'm travelling to Gunnislake I do get free parking because I'm paying ^24.00 for my SDR. Now with parking currently costing ^5.60 at Tiverton Parkway, I could buy a SDR to Gunnislake for my trip to Plymouth and save ^1.10!

Now a bit later in the morning and I don't get free parking at all because we are in to Off Peak Day Return (CDR^▸ (Off Peak Day Return [ticket type] (formerly 'Cheap Day'))) territory and the cost of my trip to Plymouth or Gunnislake is nowhere near the free parking threshold. Not only is the car park likely to be full with earlier travelling punters taking advantage of the inclusive parking, but if I do find a space at the outer reaches, I have to pay.

And how about the policing? Free parkers either have to return to their car after buying their train ticket to display the free parking portion, or leave their vehicle details at the ticket office. Nice bit of extra paperwork for the ticket office to deal with. Oh, and what about unmanned stations with car-parks?

Not very fair, or logical.

A wild strike straight into row X. Still 2-1

[Btline]

There is a reason its known as Merry Hell - especially on the run up to Christmas

I normally refer to it as Merry Hell, Xmas or no Xmas!