Station car parks pull in €1.76m for Irish Rail

Traincustomer · 28-11-2015, 23:34

Quote:

IRISH RAIL earned €1.76m from car parks at five railway stations in 2014, according to figures revealed under the Freedom of Information Act.

At Kent station in Cork alone, the company earned €618,746 from parking charges.

The above is an extract from a recent article at source

Inniskeen · 29-11-2015, 08:39

If the numbers in this artice are correct then about 200 to 250 cars are parked in Cork every day, so the commuter stations around Dublin should be good earners despite the reduced rates ?

James Howard · 29-11-2015, 11:06

I wonder how much business they've driven away. The charges are fair enough in stations in city centres and for a lot the suburban stations but 4 euro a day for parking in a station in the middle of nowhere is absurd.

Jamie2k9 · 29-11-2015, 15:08

Quote:

If the numbers in this artice are correct then about 200 to 250 cars are parked in Cork every day, so the commuter stations around Dublin should be good earners despite the reduced rates ?

and that's only at 50-60% capacity, in saying that Irish Rail charges are the same as the two or three car parks around the station area.

ACustomer · 29-11-2015, 17:30

Did IE not abolish or drastically reduce carpark charges in Mideton and other East Cork suburban stations because people were being deterred from using the rail services?

What about making parking much more attractive in places like Gorey and Arklow where by all accounts carparks are under-utilised?

Inniskeen · 29-11-2015, 21:56

The pathetically slow and infrequent service is a bigger problem than car parking charges but as the saying goes "Every Little Helps"

hoopsheff · 30-11-2015, 12:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by James Howard

I wonder how much business they've driven away. The charges are fair enough in stations in city centres and for a lot the suburban stations but 4 euro a day for parking in a station in the middle of nowhere is absurd.

Especially seeing as a lot of those stations arent really useable without driving to the station.

you add the parking charge to the ticket price, and its nearly as cheap (or cheaper) to drive to the city centre and park in Connolly for the day

James Howard · 30-11-2015, 14:08

I wouldn't go so far as to say it makes it cheaper to drive to the city - I commute from Edgeworthstown and I reckon that driving cost me about three times as much as my Taxsaver and annual parking combined. Edgeworthstown is one of those stations that is quite impractical to get to without a car - being about a kilometre out of the town and further from the main housing estates.

However, I do know that a group of four people abandoned the train from Edgeworthstown when the parking charges came in and started car-pooling instead. That alone represents a loss of revenue now of 12 grand a year. When the charges came in, overnight the car-park went from being full to being less than half-full but as the economy was in free-fall at the time, it is difficult to say what proportion of the change was due to parking.

The car park probably collects roughly the same revenue two open returns to Connolly per day. It probably costs about half of that in terms of the cost of the ticket machine and the cost of sending somebody out a few times a week to check if people have tickets.

vegas82 · 30-11-2015, 17:25

interesting that they pull in lots of money yet many are in shocking condition. For example the dart station in clontarf road you can't even see the lines in a lot of places with the result of people parking haphazardly.

Also - to say that the carpark floods with even a smidge of rain is an understatement.

Is NCPS or Irish Rail responsable for maintenance?

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29-11-2015, 08:39	#2
Inniskeen Really Regular Poster Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 951	If the numbers in this artice are correct then about 200 to 250 cars are parked in Cork every day, so the commuter stations around Dublin should be good earners despite the reduced rates ?

29-11-2015, 11:06	#3
James Howard Really Really Regluar Poster Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Sligo Line Posts: 1,115	I wonder how much business they've driven away. The charges are fair enough in stations in city centres and for a lot the suburban stations but 4 euro a day for parking in a station in the middle of nowhere is absurd.

29-11-2015, 17:30	#5
ACustomer Really Regular Poster Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 767	Did IE not abolish or drastically reduce carpark charges in Mideton and other East Cork suburban stations because people were being deterred from using the rail services? What about making parking much more attractive in places like Gorey and Arklow where by all accounts carparks are under-utilised?

29-11-2015, 21:56	#6
Inniskeen Really Regular Poster Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 951	The pathetically slow and infrequent service is a bigger problem than car parking charges but as the saying goes "Every Little Helps"

30-11-2015, 14:08	#8
James Howard Really Really Regluar Poster Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Sligo Line Posts: 1,115	I wouldn't go so far as to say it makes it cheaper to drive to the city - I commute from Edgeworthstown and I reckon that driving cost me about three times as much as my Taxsaver and annual parking combined. Edgeworthstown is one of those stations that is quite impractical to get to without a car - being about a kilometre out of the town and further from the main housing estates. However, I do know that a group of four people abandoned the train from Edgeworthstown when the parking charges came in and started car-pooling instead. That alone represents a loss of revenue now of 12 grand a year. When the charges came in, overnight the car-park went from being full to being less than half-full but as the economy was in free-fall at the time, it is difficult to say what proportion of the change was due to parking. The car park probably collects roughly the same revenue two open returns to Connolly per day. It probably costs about half of that in terms of the cost of the ticket machine and the cost of sending somebody out a few times a week to check if people have tickets.

30-11-2015, 17:25	#9
vegas82 New to the board Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 20	interesting that they pull in lots of money yet many are in shocking condition. For example the dart station in clontarf road you can't even see the lines in a lot of places with the result of people parking haphazardly. Also - to say that the carpark floods with even a smidge of rain is an understatement. Is NCPS or Irish Rail responsable for maintenance?