Park & Ride in Glasgow

n97 mini

Just thought I'd share a recent experience I had in Scotland.

I was using the Glasgow underground (the "clockwork orange") and parked at one of the P&R stations. When I came back several hours later I tried to pay for my car park ticket, but the machine kept spitting the ticket back out. I pressed the attention button on the machine and within seconds a nice chap was on the intercom. I told him what was happening and he said "Oh, as you're a customer of the train company you don't need to pay for your parking".

Isn't it nice when transport companies value their customers.

(School kids have unlimited free travel on the system all through school holidays too)

AlekSmart

n97 mini wrote: »

Just thought I'd share a recent experience I had in Scotland.

I was using the Glasgow underground (the "clockwork orange") and parked at one of the P&R stations. When I came back several hours later I tried to pay for my car park ticket, but the machine kept spitting the ticket back out. I pressed the attention button on the machine and within seconds a nice chap was on the intercom. I told him what was happening and he said "Oh, as you're a customer of the train company you don't need to pay for your parking".

Isn't it nice when transport companies value their customers.

(School kids have unlimited free travel on the system all through school holidays too)

Sounds great n97 mini.

Have you any idea as to how it's funded ?

What type of ticket were you travelling on.....?

We could do with some of that over here too.......along with Domestic Rates....Local Taxation....and something like this.....

http://www.spt.co.uk/parkandride/index.aspx

Car parking facilities are provided at the following Subway stations:

Shields Road
Kelvinbridge
Bridge Street

These facilities allow daytime, off-street parking for drivers travelling on the Subway.

purAll day parking can be purchased for use with all ticket types except single tickets. You can pay for your parking when you purchase your ticket.

Holders of multi-journey and season tickets can purchase Park and Ride each day on presentation of a ticket within its period of validity, provided the ticket has been used that day.

http://www.spt.co.uk/subway/using_the_subway.aspx

Concessionary fares

Holders of concessionary Travel Cards (disabled and over 60) can buy a concession ticket.

The single concession fare is 60p. However, from 1 April 2010 you can also buy a concession return ticket for £1.00.

Blind passengers with passes may collect a free ticket from the sales window. The free tickets are single journey tickets which operate the automatic gates.

Oddly enough the Subway,whilst it may allow the chizzlers free-run on the holliers,does'nt offer Free Travel to the Old-Timers or Disabled....they only get a discount...looks like ye have to be blind before Free Travel is offered....Oh well...rules is rules I suppose ?

n97 mini

AlekSmart wrote: »

What type of ticket were you travelling on.....?

There's only one type of ticket. Whole system is a flat fare. Something like £1.20 iirc.

You only need to pay for your parking if you haven't travelled on the system while you were parked.

The one in the picture in the link you posted, Shields Road, is the one I used.

EDIT: tho reading your quoted bit... I wasn't there for the whole day, tho by paying they possibly mean validating your parking ticket.

schemingbohemia

Strange it says on their site:

How much does it cost?

Park and Ride Subway users can park all day for £2.60 plus the price of your ticket. This rate applies to all valid tickets - including ZoneCard, Discovery, Day Tripper and Roundabout - but does not apply to a single journey ticket.
People who wish to use the car park only without travelling on the Subway can do so for an all day charge of £5.00.
There is no hourly rate.
Please note, for security reasons overnight parking is not permitted. A penalty rate will apply for vehicles which are left in the car park overnight.

Cionád

Used the Ingliston Park and Ride near Edinburgh during the summer, free all day parking, and the bus ticket to town was 1.60 I think.

Very handy during the Edinburgh Fringe!

They had ticket machines there, but they were bordered up, so I guess it was not always free.

AngryLips

As someone who doesn't own a car I would hate to think my bus/train/tram ticket was being used to subsidise a free park and ride facility for those that do.

n97 mini

AngryLips wrote: »

As someone who doesn't own a car I would hate to think my bus/train/tram ticket was being used to subsidise a free park and ride facility for those that do.

If the P&R wasn't free a lot of people might not use the train, and the everyone else's ticket would be more expensive.

I'm sure SPT did the maths and worked out which was most beneficial.

L1011

AngryLips wrote: »

As someone who doesn't own a car I would hate to think my bus/train/tram ticket was being used to subsidise a free park and ride facility for those that do.

This having been the situation at Irish Rail stations for 30 odd years until a few years ago...

n97 mini

MYOB wrote: »

This having been the situation at Irish Rail stations for 30 odd years until a few years ago...

Well, it's not that simple.
1. Parking is still free at the majority of train stations in Ireland.
2. Everyone who has a job subsidises IR, whether they use the train or not, therefore they also subsidise car parking.
3. As IR started charging for formerly free car parks without providing any extra services, it was seen by many as a way to get more money out of existing customers.

lubo_moravcik

All the trains are bang on time too, great idea that

AngryLips

n97 mini wrote: »

If the P&R wasn't free a lot of people might not use the train, and the everyone else's ticket would be more expensive.

I'm sure SPT did the maths and worked out which was most beneficial.

I'm going to apply your point to the case of Sandyford P&R, for example. There are 47 spaces here, let's assume an average of 1.5 people per car make use of this facility. Let's also assume half those cars get parked for a full day while the other half are occupied by cars using it for a half day. At full capacity that's still only 211 journeys if we take it that each user makes both and outbound and return journey on Luas. Compare that number against a 30k to 40k daily patronage for Green line and it pales in significance. No matter what way you want to tweak the assumptions the final figure will still be a marginal proportion to the total number people on Luas every day.

Cionád

AngryLips wrote: »

I'm going to apply your point to the case of Sandyford P&R, for example. There are 47 spaces here, let's assume an average of 1.5 people per car make use of this facility. Let's also assume half those cars get parked for a full day while the other half are occupied by cars using it for a half day. At full capacity that's still only 211 journeys if we take it that each user makes both and outbound and return journey on Luas. Compare that number against a 30k to 40k daily patronage for Green line and it pales in significance. No matter what way you want to tweak the assumptions the final figure will still be a marginal proportion to the total number people on Luas every day.

That's one station, and why did you pick Sandyford?, if we include all 4 P&R's on the Green Line it adds up to (426 + 313 + 300 + 47) = 1,086. Using your calculations that would be roughly 10-15% of the daily usage, and a higher percentage when considering people who alight towards the southern end of the line. Hardly insignificant.

Is the P&R at M3 Pace free by the way? Think that has over 1,200 spaces in itself...

As for subsidising, that is how public services work, almost everything is subsidised by the public purse, if it is something useful suck as free parking on the outskirts of the city which removes traffic and pollution from the centre, then I'm all for it. Maybe I'm just a commie hippy who also supports the use of cars to complement a woefully inadequate public transportation system.