Overnight Car Parking on Merseyrail run Stations

[Kite159]

Following on from this thread https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/merseyrail-station-car-park-offence.262417/#post-6626695

Is it just me who thinks that the no overnight parking rule is a bit outdated as it doesn't encourage someone to drive to a Merseyrail station (from say an area on the Wirral not served by Merseyrail or elsewhere in Merseyside not served) if they are heading away for a weekend trip, as they would drive elsewhere to a station car park allowing overnight parking or parking on the side of the streets near the Merseyrail station potentially causing issues for local residents.

Similar to how some Metrolink car parks allow overnight parking only on certain days of the week.

Although I suspect the issue is with policing the car parking, a potential solution could be a system where someone visits the ticket office, shows their rail ticket (or buys it) and gets a car parking ticket to put in the windscreen allowing parking overnight.

 

[Bletchleyite]

An option might be it being free for 24 hours then chargeable thereafter, with a free ticket dispensed on arrival if only staying for 24hrs?

 

[Bevan Price]

There are some stations where I would not want to leave a car unattended all night......

 

[Bletchleyite]

There are some stations where I would not want to leave a car unattended all night......

Plenty where it'd be fine, though, e.g. Ormskirk.

 

[YorkRanger]

The chances are quite high at stations like Ormskirk that the free overnight parking would be abused by university students though, and wouldn't leave any spaces for people using rail services. If overnight parking was allowed, there would definitely need to be some sort of ticket you could collect from the ticket office and leave in your windscreen (or a more modern solution of providing the ticket office with your reg plate and having it electronically recorded) to prevent the parking being misused.

 

[Bertie the bus]

Is it just me who thinks that the no overnight parking rule is a bit outdated as it doesn't encourage someone to drive to a Merseyrail station (from say an area on the Wirral not served by Merseyrail or elsewhere in Merseyside not served) if they are heading away for a weekend trip,

I suspect that is the whole point of no overnight parking. Some Merseyrail car parks are quite small and if half of the spaces are taken by people parking, catching the train to the airport and then flying off for 2 weeks on holiday there wouldn't be enough space for commuters.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I suspect that is the whole point of no overnight parking. Some Merseyrail car parks are quite small and if half of the spaces are taken by people parking, catching the train to the airport and then flying off for 2 weeks on holiday there wouldn't be enough space for commuters.

But some are huge, including Ormskirk.

Also it misses the common use case (which I've done more than once elsewhere) of drive to station, into town, drink, taxi back, get car in morning. That could be done with an ANPR 24 hour limit.

 

[Kite159]

I suspect that is the whole point of no overnight parking. Some Merseyrail car parks are quite small and if half of the spaces are taken by people parking, catching the train to the airport and then flying off for 2 weeks on holiday there wouldn't be enough space for commuters.

Hence, they could do similar to Metrolink and only allow overnight parking on say Friday - Sunday nights. No overnight parking allowed on Monday to Thursday, catering for those heading away for the weekend but not for 2 weeks on holiday.

Enforced with tickets issued by the ticket office for genuine users.

 

[Bertie the bus]

Ormskirk isn't huge at all. If I ever want to travel to Liverpool off peak I always drive to Town Green because Ormskirk fills up well before the end of the morning peak and even if Town Green's car park is full, which it often isn't, at least you can park on the street close by.

 

[YorkRanger]

But some are huge, including Ormskirk.

Ormskirk's definitely isn't huge, it has 108 spaces (which for a town of 27k people with a large university.. isn't exactly great..) The places that are there fill up very quickly, and there's no roads around the station where you can park if the car park is full either, everywhere is either double yellow lines or permit parking, and to add to the matters most council car parks in the town are 4 hour maximum stays.


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Merseyrail have been asked this question on X before and their response was:

Hey,
We don't allow overnight parking at any of our stations as if any essential work needs to be done, the car park needs to be free and clear so that Network rail staff can get their equipment in. Thanks ^Lukas

https://twitter.com/merseyrail/status/1654899616079306753?t=7391Fw5gPNSRHTOk1kth5w&s=19

 

[Kite159]

------
Merseyrail have been asked this question on X before and their response was:

https://twitter.com/merseyrail/status/1654899616079306753?t=7391Fw5gPNSRHTOk1kth5w&s=19

So what makes merseyrail different to other operators where car parks can be used by network rail to get their equipment in (via access gates)?

 

[Bletchleyite]

So what makes merseyrail different to other operators where car parks can be used by network rail to get their equipment in (via access gates)?

You could ask that about lots of things they do differently to the rest of the network. While they're technically part of it, they are almost as different from it as London Underground.

 

[Djgr]

There is a strong case for leaving things as they are. Free, unlimited parking will inevitably lead to half of the spaces being permanently occupied by non-rail users.

On the Wirral there have been lots of recent issues with commercial van operators and camper vans permanently parked on the seafront.

 

[Bletchleyite]

On the Wirral there have been lots of recent issues with commercial van operators and camper vans permanently parked on the seafront.

Campervans (including "stealth vans") are a wider issue, and if they keep proliferating in this way there's going to need to be specific legislation about them being parked in public. Similarly with commercial vehicles which are often a massive blight on terraced streets because if one's outside your window it blocks the light (plus they look ugly).

TBH I'd rather a chargeable car park than one where I couldn't decide to have a drink after work and come back for the car in the morning, something I've done many, many times.

 

[Djgr]

Campervans (including "stealth vans") are a wider issue, and if they keep proliferating in this way there's going to need to be specific legislation about them being parked in public. Similarly with commercial vehicles which are often a massive blight on terraced streets because if one's outside your window it blocks the light (plus they look ugly).

TBH I'd rather a chargeable car park than one where I couldn't decide to have a drink after work and come back for the car in the morning, something I've done many, many times.

Yes. It's just 99% of the users of these car parks wouldn't rather.