Train users paying £215 a day to park cars at city centre stations

Rail customers are being charged up to £215 day by greedy station bosses to park at city centre stations. Union bosses claim the exorbitant parking charges amount to a ‘stealth tax’ on train travel.

Lime St Station in Liverpool Image by Elliot Brown / CC BY 2.0

The four worst offenders at £215 per 12-hour day were Liverpool Lime St, Birmingham New Street, Manchester Piccadilly and Leeds. On their own, those prices are steep but when taken in conjunction with hefty rail fares, it makes the cost of travel a serious burden on household budgets.

The Mail Online reported that an annual season ticket from Reading to London was almost £4,800 with Cambridge to the capital close on £4,650 and Guildford coming in at £3,250. Most galling for hard-pressed long distance commuters are the figures showing transport companies coining it, by making £800 million a year from such activity as catering and parking.

Unions claim that the cost for the non-core transport business was a way round the cap by government on rail fares each year.