Parking at Southampton Parkway

[PhilipW]

I was wondering if anyone has had experience of parking at Southampton Parkway now that the multi storey car park has opened.

Q: Is there now always plenty of spaces if one arrives at 10:00 to 11:00 on a weekday.

Before the multi storey was built the car park was always full up by 08:00 to 09:00 so there was little point in arriving later in the day hoping for a space. You may not have found one. Is the situation fine now ?

Thanks, if anyone can help

 

[swt_passenger]

There always seems tons of room in the 'ground level north' car park now, and it appears there are never many cars visible in the upper floors - however that's only as seen from passing northbound XC trains around 1020 ish.

I haven't taken a car into the multi storey yet, not at those prices - but it did seem a good quality job when I walked through the ground floor a few days after it opened...

 

[GearJammer]

I haven't taken a car into the multi storey yet, not at those prices

Dare i ask what it costs to park there?

 

[swt_passenger]

Dare i ask what it costs to park there?

Are you sitting down?

£11 per day, with a cheap rate in the evening. £5 Sat/Sun.

I think they reckon if it didn't charge the same as the airport short stay across the road it would fill up with air passengers.

 

[33011]

Are you sitting down?

£11 per day, with a cheap rate in the evening. £5 Sat/Sun.

I think they reckon if it didn't charge the same as the airport short stay across the road it would fill up with air passengers.

I think that was the idea before the multi story.However someone has to pay for the new car park so i don't expect a decrease

 

[thefab444]

Until a couple of years ago it used to be free at weekends.

 

[GearJammer]

£11 a day, bloody hell, and thats s'posed to enchorage people to leave their cars there and catch the train? Its cheaper to drive!

 

[WestCoast]

£11 a day, fbloody hell, and thats s'posed to enchorage people to leave their cars there and catch the train? Its cheaper to drive!

It's quite funny since Parkway stations are usually designed and fully intended for "park & ride" purposes to the nearest city/town.

However, at that price plus the rail fare....hock:

I suppose it's a very difficult one with an airport on your doorstep (where many people need to park their cars!!).

 

[OuterDistant]

Are you sitting down?

£11 per day, with a cheap rate in the evening. £5 Sat/Sun.

I think they reckon if it didn't charge the same as the airport short stay across the road it would fill up with air passengers.

Jesus! So you spend £11 before you've even travelled anywhere, whereas £11 worth of petrol would get you around 65 miles in a car.

The traffic must be truly shocking down there!

 

[swt_passenger]

It's quite funny since Parkway stations are usually designed and fully intended for "park & ride" purposes to the nearest city/town.

However, at that price plus the rail fare....hock:

Southampton Parkway is basically intended for daily travel to London. I expect there's a fairly massive discount for seasons, like there is on the train fares...

But the parking fee itself isn't that different at places such as Winchester, which again is nearly all London commuters...

 

[thefab444]

The annual parking season for Southampton Airport is £1,250 which works out at about £3.50 per day, although you probably wouldn't use it every day! Winchester is £1,000 per year, so about £2.75 per day.

 

[WestCoast]

Southampton Parkway is basically intended for daily travel to London. I expect there's a fairly massive discount for seasons, like there is on the train fares...

But the parking fee itself isn't that different at places such as Winchester, which again is nearly all London commuters...

That makes sense, I didn't think too many Southampton commuters/shoppers would be using it at that price (Monday - Friday).

The fastest services are slightly over an hour from there to Waterloo aren't they?

 

[BananaRepublic]

Are you sitting down?
£11 per day, with a cheap rate in the evening. £5 Sat/Sun.

Until a couple of years ago it used to be free at weekends.

£11 a day, bloody hell, and thats s'posed to enchorage people to leave their cars there and catch the train? Its cheaper to drive!

Jesus! So you spend £11 before you've even travelled anywhere, whereas £11 worth of petrol would get you around 65 miles in a car.

Until a couple of years ago, we used to use Parkway fairly regularly for weekend visits to London; either as a family of 4, or as individuals. The attraction being accessibility by road and Free parking.
Then they started charging at weekends and it wasn't so good; but since prices shot up, that's it, we don't bother anymore as the total cost is far too expensive.
We are now doing what many others are doing and driving up to the outskirts of London and finding suitable cheap or free parking near to a rail or tube station.

 

[Oracle]

There used to be a 'shoppers'' ticket at weekends which was parking + rail for four to Central.

From where we are it really is more economical to leave the car at Ashurst for free and take the train to London or change at Central for XC rather than drive all those miles up the A326, then the M27 and get stuck in traffic and finally pay gold bars for the car park.

Brockenhurst has a commuter car park which you have to pay for. You used to be able to get cheaper advanced tickets from there so it did pay some people I knew to drive there from the Lyndhurst area and pay for parking rather than drive to Ashurst.

As regards driving up to the Smoke...as my parents live in Hounslow we park up for free at Hounslow West and go in on the Underground. I know that others have parked at Osterley station [on the A4] with its adjacent car park for the same reason.

 

[thefab444]

From where we are it really is more economical to leave the car at Ashurst for free and take the train to London or change at Central for XC rather than drive all those miles up the A326, then the M27 and get stuck in traffic and finally pay gold bars for the car park.

There was talk of introducing a charge for Ashurst's carpark but I think this has finally been dropped. It does get fairly full on weekdays.

Brockenhurst has a commuter car park which you have to pay for. You used to be able to get cheaper advanced tickets from there so it did pay some people I knew to drive there from the Lyndhurst area and pay for parking rather than drive to Ashurst.

Strictly speaking you have to pay, but if you're in the know and get there at the right time you can park for free in certain nearby streets.

 

[Oracle]

You can indeed park in streets at Brock. The NR car park is of course shared with The New Forest Inn pub.

 

[paul1609]

I used to drive to Southampton Airport Parkway (about an hour from Littlehampton) and then take the train to Dorset for days out. Since they've started charging rediculous prices at the weekend I drive all the way.

 

[matt]

Surely a way around this problem would be to either refund the car parking charge if you travel by train or you get some money off your train ticket.

 

[OuterDistant]

Surely a way around this problem would be to either refund the car parking charge if you travel by train or you get some money off your train ticket.

How dare you suggest something sensible to be implemented on our railways!

 

[swt_passenger]

SWT used to have split pricing at many of their car parks round here, but it was stopped, (and the fees did seem to be averaged out), when they introduced ticketless payment by RINGO, and more widespread TVMs etc. IIRC Fareham was £6 and reduced to £4 at the ticket office in exchange for the coupon from the machine when buying a rail ticket; often you'd just be given a two pounds cash refund if using a credit card.

I can't see an easy way of refunding part of a paid RINGO fee, and of course if you'd already used a car park ticket machine 200 yards away a refund from a TVM would be difficult to sort out.