Station car park

Trumpet

Well-Known Forumite
I seem to recall being able to reclaim parking fees from the train buffet car upon production of a ticket similar to the car park at Sainsburys. Is this still an option does anyone know?
 

United57

Well-Known Forumite
Stafford to Perry Barr is cheaper than Stafford to Birmingham.

You have to go through Birmingham to get to Perry Barr.
 

tekkers

Well-Known Forumite
Gramaisc said:
United57 said:
Stafford to Perry Barr is cheaper than Stafford to Birmingham.

You have to go through Birmingham to get to Perry Barr.
Beware - read the conditions, just in case...
Most days I go out of New Street Station into the Pallasades or the Bull Ring, and I never get stopped when my ticket says Perry Barr on it.

I am ultimately going to Perry Barr but it says on the ticket it says, "Route: Any Permitted," therefore surely you are allowed to do it, and walk out at New Street Station and back in, because the trains aren't direct to Perry Barr, you have to catch the train to Walsall from New Street.
 

tekkers

Well-Known Forumite
P.s. The station car park doesn't look great, I thought driving past the green metal mesh for weeks was netting, the fact non-painted steel shines through as well looks a bit naff, as does the unpainted wood cladding - the bottom layer looked nice though, had a quick glance at it yesterday, but, surely they will put walls around it to protect cars? As for £8 a day, ouch! If it looked a bit better and was a bit cheaper I'd say it was really good though, will be interesting to see how much it is used.
 

United57

Well-Known Forumite
tekkers said:
Gramaisc said:
United57 said:
Stafford to Perry Barr is cheaper than Stafford to Birmingham.

You have to go through Birmingham to get to Perry Barr.
Beware - read the conditions, just in case...
Most days I go out of New Street Station into the Pallasades or the Bull Ring, and I never get stopped when my ticket says Perry Barr on it.

I am ultimately going to Perry Barr but it says on the ticket it says, "Route: Any Permitted," therefore surely you are allowed to do it, and walk out at New Street Station and back in, because the trains aren't direct to Perry Barr, you have to catch the train to Walsall from New Street.
The professor purchased a specific saver ticket, all you are doing is purchasing a standard ticket which is cheaper. Oddly there are lots of theses anomolies. I think there is a station in north Manchester where its cheaper. Again you have to go through Manchester.

google split your ticket
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
tekkers said:
I thought driving past the green metal mesh for weeks was netting,
I thought that too.

As carbuncles go, i don't think it's that monstrous - let's face it, it could've been a lot worse.

If those whisks are turbines i'm looking forward to seeing them work in a proper hooly.
 

Paul88

Active Member
Dropped someone off at the train station this morning. Will look when they clear the construction panels and it looked like a fair few cars were in there.
 

Vault_girl

Well-Known Forumite
tekkers said:
Gramaisc said:
United57 said:
Stafford to Perry Barr is cheaper than Stafford to Birmingham.

You have to go through Birmingham to get to Perry Barr.
Beware - read the conditions, just in case...
Most days I go out of New Street Station into the Pallasades or the Bull Ring, and I never get stopped when my ticket says Perry Barr on it.

I am ultimately going to Perry Barr but it says on the ticket it says, "Route: Any Permitted," therefore surely you are allowed to do it, and walk out at New Street Station and back in, because the trains aren't direct to Perry Barr, you have to catch the train to Walsall from New Street.
I lived in Hamstead first year of uni and used to get the train home from Perry Barr most weekends. I was told that you had to go via Walsall to get the cheap Perry Barr-Stafford ticket but the ticket people at Perry Barr didn't care and often told me to get the new street train then change at new street. When I tried to get a ticket back to Perry Barr from Stafford the ticket lady tried to charge me over twice the price because she said I was going to go back via Birmingham rather than take the Walsall train and that's lot more expensive. she actually wouldn't let me get the Walsall ticket and at the time I wasn't the type of person to argue. But like you say it does say any route on the tickets and I never got stopped by anyone on the trains. It makes no sense to me!
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
United57 said:
Beware - read the conditions, just in case...

The professor purchased a specific saver ticket, all you are doing is purchasing a standard ticket which is cheaper. Oddly there are lots of theses anomolies. I think there is a station in north Manchester where its cheaper. Again you have to go through Manchester.

google split your ticket
'Dr B Ching' looks at these anomalies in current Eye. Worth a read - extract;

""Anytime" fares are so much dearer than advance ones it can pay to book advance tickets on two or more successive trains if you're unsure (when) you will travel...
...although travelling 95 percent of a journey is a punishable offence, travelling 0 percent is unpunishable..."
 

The Hawk

Well-Known Forumite
henryscat said:
"Any permitted" route does not equate to "any" route...
Correct.

In this case though, according to the National Rail web site, Stafford to Perry Barr via Birmingham New Street is a permitted route.

For a day return from Stafford to Birmingham New Street there are better options though:

1) Stafford to Birmingham New Street - Anytime £10.70 or Off-Peak £9.10.

2) Stafford to Perry Barr via Birmingham New Street - Anytime £9.40 or Off-Peak £7.70.

3) Stafford to Rugeley Town via Birmingham New Street - Anytime £4.90 or Off-Peak £3.80.

The ticket to Rugeley Town is valid via Birmingham New Street (check at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ ) and you can get off and back on at Birmingham New Street under the rule relating to these day return tickets, which states "You may start, break and resume, or end your journey at any intermediate station along the route of travel".

So it's also a cheaper option for travelling between Stafford and Wolverhampton as well.

Please note that tickets from Stafford to Rugeley Trent Valley are NOT valid via Birmingham New Street, it has to be Rugeley Town.

The only danger with publicising this ticketing loophole is that as more and more people exploit it, so the likelihood that it will be closed increases. Nevertheless, it has been around for a while and is still currently valid, so fill your boots :D

WE have gone a bit off topic here, so I will add that the money you save using this, will help pay for you car park ticket :dance:
 
Thehooperman said:
acpoynton said:
And from Network Rail
.....The special off-peak rates should also appeal to shoppers and weekend travellers.”
Who is going to park at the station to go shopping? Are we really that short of parking spaces near the shops that people will pay a fortune for the privilage of carting their shopping miles back to their cars assuming they can find the camouflaged monstrosity through the trees :)

It's ironic that this new car park is on the site that was once the bus terminus. So much for integrated transport and encouraging people to use public transport, eh?
Don't forget evryone it is only £2 all to park at the station on a Saturday which I agree would appeal to anyone visisting Stafford
 

GraphicsMan

Well-Known Forumite
I think the car park is a bit of a monstrosity and the green mesh makes it look like it's not finished. I'm surprised they didn't revamp our hole of a station at the same time!

I wasn't sure if the whisks on the top were aerial masts or wind turbines. I hope they're masts as I've never seen them turning yet and I come past it twice a day.
 
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