Daily Parking rate up by 50% next Monday

[James Howard]

Irish Rail have just given 6 days' notice of a 50% increase in the daily parking rate. You can avoid some of the increase by switching to Park by Text but they seem to nickle and dime their way up to an extra charge of around 50c per day with account maintenance charges, text message charges and "convenience charges".

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/...w&news_id=1256

[finnyus]

With this increase, the carparks at Midleton, Carrigtwohill, Glounthaune and Little Island should just be sold off, as they are currently not being used with the current charge, they are definitely not going to be used if the price goes up even more.

[Colm Moore]

http://irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=1256

Changes to train station parking charges from Mon 12th December by Corporate Communications

Iarnród Éireann has advised customers that there will be changes to car park charges at train stations from Monday 12th December.

While machine charges for daily and weekly parking will increase, customers can ensure that the price of parking is unchanged by switching to ParkByText where there will be no increase.

Monthly charges will effectively be reduced for all customers, with the validity of the €30 monthly rate for machine or ParkByText customers extended from 28 days to 31 days for no extra charge.



Full details of new rates from 12th December 2011 are:

Parking Duration Machine Charge ParkByText Charge (Unchanged)

Daily* €3 (was €2) €2
Weekly* €10 (was €8) €8
Monthly* (now 31 days instead of 28) €30 (unchanged) €30
Day parking charges at Heuston, Connolly, Cork €8 (was €7) €7

*Full list of stations below

The revised charges mean that, as well as being a more convenient way of paying for parking, ParkByText is now the cheapest way also, with no increase on current rates.

The monthly charge now sees customers’ parking rates reduced to less than €1 per day for all payment methods.

Customers can also open a ParkByText account, with added benefits including:

- Shorter and simpler payment process (An account holder is only required to send a short text message to complete payment whereas an unregistered user needs to send a similar text message followed by providing their credit card details to a voicemail phone number)

- Account holders have the option to receive text messages and/or emails with updates on special parking offers and system enhancements

- Account holders can select a free option of automatic top up to their account balance ensuring that they always have funds set aside for their parking charges

A 50 cent monthly account maintenance charge applies to customers choosing this option.

Further details are available at www.parkbytext.ie



How to use Parkbytext

Parkbytext is a Cashless Payment System for use with mobile and smart phones. This has recently been introduced at all stations with paid car parks.

It gives customers an option to pay for their parking without having to carry cash, attend at a machine or display a ticket on their car windscreen.

Once payment has been made using parkbytext, the central system is updated to take account of this and the car park management company will then know who has paid for their parking.

Parkbytext offers two options. One is as an account holder and the other is a pay as you go option. An account holder would have been pre-registered at www.parkbytext.ie.

To parkbytext as an account holder simply text:

* PARK(location code)(duration) to 51155.
* All Location codes are displayed on car park signage nationwide.
* Duration can be day (D), week (W) or month (M).


For example, to park at Dalkey Station text:

* PARK 0858 D to 51155 to park for one day at location 0858 (i.e. Dalkey train station)

OR

* PARK 0858 W to 51155, to park for one week at location 0858 (i.e. Dalkey train station).

Account holders may also pay for parking by calling 0818 444 999. Visit www.parkbytext.ie to open an account.



To initiate parking session if not an account holder text:

* PARK(location code)(car registration) to 51155.

For example to park at Dalkey Station text:

* PARK 0858 07D72973 to 51155.
* You will then receive an information text with further instructions to your mobile phone.

For full FAQs, benefits of opening and account, and Terms and Conditions visit www.parkbytext.ie or contact info@parkbytext.ie.



*List of stations for daily, weekly and monthly charges detailed:

Ardrahan
Arklow
Athenry
Athlone
Athy
Balbriggan
Ballinasloe
Booterstown
Bray
Carlow
Carrigtwohill
Castlebar
Charleville
Clara
Clontarf Rd
Collooney
Coolmine
Craughwell
Dalkey
Donabate
Drogheda
Dunboyne
Dundalk
Edgeworthstown
Enfield
Ennis
Farranfore
Glounthane
Gorey
Gormanstown
Gort
Hazelhatch
Kildare
Kilkenny
Killarney
Killester
Laytown
Leixlip Confey
Leixlip Louisa Bridge
Limerick Junction
Little Island
Longford
Malahide
Mallow
Maynooth
Midleton
Monasterevin
Mullingar
Newbridge
Portarlington
Portlaoise
Portmarnock
Rathdrum
Rosslare
Rush & Lusk
Sallins
Skerries
Sligo
Sutton
Templemore
Thurles
Tralee
Tullamore
Waterford
Westport
Wicklow
Woodlawn

[Ron Burgundy]

This is disgusting.

I'd like to use other words but my post would be deleted.

[James Howard]

It looks like the park by text is the only reasonable option for commuters. It is really annoying for me as I end up buying a lot of daily tickets as I usually only commute 4 days per week and also end up taking every third or fourth week off for travelling.

I can see the standard daily charge being a fiver before too long. The lack of notice is terrible behaviour - how is anybody supposed to budget in these times when Irish Rail put up charges on a week's notice?

Between fuel, parking and the cost of keeping a 13 year old car I use for nothing else on the road, it now costs me more to drive 6 miles each way to the station that it does to take the train 70 miles.

[dowlingm]

Turn the stations and car parks over to the local authority in each town. Keep the cash local (all net proceeds from the car park to be reinvested in station upkeep, installing water/services for small retail units etc) and allow the LA to decide a charging regime appropriate to the locality (especially in towns where train parking is used by locals to park for business in the town as cheaper than on-street).

But maybe that can't happen now because the outsourced pay parking provider has been given a long hard to break deal?

[Jamie2k9]

Do they change in Waterford, they have the machiens there but they started to charge then it was dropped and now not sure if its back or what, don't see many cars with tickets.

[Colm Moore]

http://irishrail.ie/your_journey/carpark_information.asp

Waterford Station
170 including disabled Pay & display
€2.00 per day
€8.00 per week
€30.00 for 4 weeks.
Operator: NCPS

[James Howard]

There is no notification of any change in Edgeworthstown station. Do they not have to give people some kind of notice? Twitter or website updates don't count for the majority of people.

[Mark Gleeson]

Irish Rail has curiously deleted the story off the front page of its website (its still shown on the non public test site)

There is confusion as to this convenience charge, on one hand I've been told it won't apply to IE stations from Dec 12th on the other hand there is no mention of that in public.

[James Howard]

Well I still have the tweet and the link there still works.

IrishRail
Changes to train station car parking charges from Mon 12th December. No change if you use or switch to parkbytext http://bit.ly/sXzlsQ

What a ridiculous situation. Now I don't know if I need to sort myself out with a Park By Text account before next Monday. Is this some numpty gone on a solo run?

Also, I would love to know where they came up with "convenience charge" when to use the service you have to create an account, connect it to your credit card, top it up and send a text message every time you want to pay for parking. How is this more convenient than sticking two euro in a coin slot and putting a ticket on the dashboard? The only thing convenient about it is that NCPS don't have to empty machines or fix them quickly when they are broken.

[Commuter101]

Is there anything we can do to fight this increase???

[James Howard]

I just registered for the park by text thing as I needed to leave the car at the station for the weekend and didn't have enough change.

It looks like you can avoid most of the extra charges by using the park by text facility to pay online (as opposed to using the text facility). You definitely avoid the text message charge and as far as I can see it avoids the convenience charge. This just leaves you with the 50c per month account maintenance charge.

[Inniskeen]

James,

When you say "if you pay online" do you mean top up online or do you mean you need to go online for each parking transaction ?

[James Howard]

Unfortunately, you need to go online to do the transaction which works OK for me but may be problematic for others.

[ThomasJ]

this notice is up at clonsilla station.

It would.be helpful if they put in the carpark first!

[Destructix]

Will this mean a change in the parking terms. They say cars are parked at owners risk yet if i'm being charged to park in one of their car parks I should be entitled to come back and not find my car windows smashed and should be compensated for any loss. Is this money really for the security of the car park/insurance etc or just a money making scam with no cover if one their car parks attract criminals.

[Mark Gleeson]

We are fully aware of the legal significance of a charge and the fact it does change in part the liability.

This is just Irish Rail trying to gouge out some more cash as the NTA will never give them the full fare increase they want.

[Commuter101]

Again I ask is there anything we can do to fight this increase? It seems totally unjustified

[Destructix]

6% increase announced on fares. So roughly adding €2-€3 if my sums are correct to the Thurles-Heuston fare to be honest it's not as bad as the last increase. €39-€46

Lesser of two evils i guess trying to raise some money outside of the fare increases rather than getting a higher percentage increase like 10% from the NTA. At least with the car park charges you can find ways to avoid them. I don't park in their car parks much anymore, I use to a lot when it was free. Bit of a walk but you can park in Lidl for free or up near Semple Stadium. But then you have the elderly who can't park by text who will no doubt be affected.