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Friday 27 Mar 2009

MORE CAR PARKING SPACES AT RUNCORN STATION FROM 9 APRIL

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The new multi-story car park at Runcorn station will open on Thursday 9 April. The expanded car park will provide an additional 198 parking spaces, making a total of 558 spaces available at the Cheshire station. For the safety and security of users, the car park also has CCTV throughout with 24 hour recording.

A new charging structure is also being introduced, offering substantial discounts over the full day rate for off peak and weekend users.

From 9 April all-day parking at Runcorn will cost £6, up from the current £5 a day and is the first increase in parking charges at the station for nearly ten years. New off-peak parking charges will be available from 10:00 on weekdays and all day on Saturdays and Sundays at £3. Monthly, quarterly, six monthly and annual season tickets are also available, which have also been increased to align them pro-rata with the new daily rate.

Virgin Trains Station Manager at Runcorn Keith Millard said: “The limited parking facilities at Runcorn station have caused problems for rail travellers for many years. Now with nearly 200 extra spaces everyone should be able to find a parking space, and the special off-peak rates should appeal to shoppers and weekend travellers.”

The car park has a new ‘Pay on Foot’ payment system, where a ticket is issued on entry to the car park. Payment must then be made at the machine prior to customers returning to their car to leave the car park.

Contractors are expected to remain on site until the end of May, completing external cosmetic work and installing and commissioning a new environmentally-friendly wind turbine system , which will provide the majority of the power needed for the car park. The turbines will be extremely compact, rather than the usual type of blade turbine.

Keith Millard commented: “We wanted to get the car park open as soon as we could, and the remaining work should not interfere with any of the parking areas.”

The work at Runcorn is part of a joint project between Virgin Trains and Network Rail to improve car parking at all 17 stations on the West Coast route which are managed by Virgin Trains. The other stations involved are: Lancaster, Penrith, Warrington Bank Quay, Wigan North Western, Carlisle, Oxenholme, Preston, Crewe, Stockport, Macclesfield, Stoke-on-Trent, Stafford, Wolverhampton, Birmingham International, Coventry and Rugby.

David Golding, Network Rail's Route Enhancements Manager said: "More passengers are now travelling by train than ever before and the demand for rail travel is set to continue to rise. We predict that a large proportion of these extra passengers will drive to the station, putting more strain on the car park. We need to increase the number of parking spaces to cater for this demand so, working with Virgin Trains, we have committed £90 million to transform parking at many of the stations on the west coast main."