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Martin Underwood · July 6th 06, 06:35 PM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london

Rupert Candy wrote in message
:

Roland Perry wrote:

iirc, the Cambridge P&R runs on the basis that the car parking is
provided by the council (and not charged for), and the bus company
keeps all the fares. York's scheme felt much the same. Nottingham is
slanted more towards paying per car, to park, and getting a free bus
ride (although you pay the "parking" fee to the bus driver).

and the latter, IMHO, is much more sensible since the cost doesn't
rise based on the number of passengers in your car. (In Canterbury,
for example, parking costs L2, paid at the site, and you and your
passengers ride for free - making it better value if you are a large
group. In Cambridge, Maidstone and many others, you park for free and
each of you pays around L1.50, making it quite an expensive medium
stay cost for a group of 4.)

Oxford, meanwhile, seems to combine both systems, making you pay a
token fee (50p last time I was there) for parking *and* a bus fare.
But I think it's otherwise the best example on the country - the buses
don't stop at the end of shopping hours!

There's also Reading's P&R which used to (maybe still does) stop running
buses on a Saturday as early as 4PM in order to discourage people parking
any later and occupying spaces that belong to the cinema at Winnersh
Triangle which only permits P&R use outside the cinema's evening rush. A P&R
that stops at 4PM is about as much use as a chocolate teapot :-(

Oxford's scheme is interesting because they have recently stopped charging
for parking, but only at certain car parks. Sadly the closest one to me (and
which avoids the queues around Botley Road or the dreaded Green Road
Roundabout) is one of those where you still need to pay.

York's is good: the journey time is fairly quick, the buses seem to run more
frequently than Oxford's, and the total fare is cheaper (ie one return fare
in York versus one return fare plus one car parking in Oxford). Oxford's
buses wait for *ages* at the car park instead of departing as soon as they
have filled up with the waiting passengers and running a more intensive
service.