Commuters’ parking charges rise

Darren Roberts was shocked at the higher parking charges

Hundreds of station car parks have raised their charges this month by at least twice the rate of inflation.

Commuter areas in the home counties seem to be the worst affected.

More than 50 stations operated by the South Eastern rail franchise have increased charges from £3 to £3.50 this month, an increase of 16%.

East Midlands, First Capital Connect, First Great Western and South-West Trains have all put up charges by at least 8%, though not at all stations.

Such increases come on top of the increased price of fuel, and an average rise of 6.2% in train fares this month, adding to the misery for commuters.

Regulars catching a train from Three Bridges station in West Sussex got a particularly nasty surprise when they arrived at the station car park this week.

They found that charges had been increased by 19%, without warning, from £4.20 to £5.00.

“That’s a shocking amount of money,” said Darren Roberts, who does a daily commute to London.

“You’re encouraged to be out of your car, but you get hit with money upon money upon money to get where you need to be.”

As with many stations, commuters have nowhere else to park, and often cannot get a space anyway.

Southern Railways, which operates Three Bridges, says it is trying to encourage more people to use a second car park 100 metres further away.

So it has raised charges there by much less than at its main car park.

Nevertheless prices at the second car park have still risen by 9%.

The RAC Foundation believes that train operators are putting up car parking charges as a sneaky way of increasing their profits.

Jo Abbotts of the RAC Foundation says parking charges should be capped

While the price of train tickets is controlled by the regulator, rail companies are free to set their own charges for car parking.

“We suspect that they’re topping up their profits,” says Jo Abbotts of the RAC Foundation.

She points out that the price of parking is now as much as a quarter of the cost of the ticket itself.

A season ticket from Oxford to London costs £4,104, she says, while the cost of parking at Oxford station is £1,200 a year.

The RAC Foundation is particularly worried that the price of parking could encourage commuters to abandon the train, and drive to work instead.

“If the cost of car parking is preventing them from taking the train, and forcing them to take their cars for the entire journey, then we need to address those issues,” says Jo Abbotts.

The train operators point out that many stations have not had price rises at all, or else they have adjusted charges to remain comparable with nearby car parks.

In Scotland for example, there have been no increases, as the operator Scotrail is not allowed to put up prices without permission from the Scottish government.

Other operators say they have increased charges to pay for improvements, such as security lighting.

The train companies say they have also had to cope with the VAT rise this month, on top of CPI inflation, which is running at 3.7%

A spokesperson for the Association of Train Operating Companies said: “Many of the UK’s stations don’t charge for car parking at all, and many car parks have discounted prices at quieter times of the day.”

But the RAC is still not convinced.

It suggests that car parking charges could be capped, and only allowed to increase at the same rate as train tickets themselves.

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