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The Great Parking Debate

The parking charge is an absolute disgrace. It was originally brought in to fund the relief road. Now its just a money making scam with towers knowing damn well that drivers have no where else to park and very limited means of getting to the park without using a car.
 
The parking charge is an absolute disgrace. It was originally brought in to fund the relief road. Now its just a money making scam with towers knowing damn well that drivers have no where else to park and very limited means of getting to the park without using a car.

No, it is not a disgrace. It is perfectly reasonable to expect to have to pay a fee to park on private land. Other means of getting to the park are poor and more of a disgrace, I'll give you that.

If they got rid of the charge now then they would lose a large revenue stream. And then people would moan about further cuts being made.
 
Sorry Rob, but private land or not, most places that charge to park do so to try and discourage people using their cars, and to encourage them to use public transport instead. Alton has very little in the way of alternative means to get to the park. There is next to no public transport so visitors have no other option but to use their cars. Like I said, the charge was introduced to fund the relief road.

To me, charging people for the sheer hell of it "because they can" and to fund a now defunct project is a scam.
 
Sorry Rob, but private land or not, most places that charge to park do so to try and discourage people using their cars, and to encourage them to use public transport instead. Alton has very little in the way of alternative means to get to the park. There is next to no public transport so visitors have no other option but to use their cars. Like I said, the charge was introduced to fund the relief road.

To me, charging people for the sheer hell of it "because they can" and to fund a now defunct project is a scam.

I'm pretty sure that all those US theme parks that charge way more than Towers don't do it to encourage peope to use public transport!! Disney charge a lot to try and get you to use their own private bus from the airport, but that is just so they can keep you on property and stop you from visiting their competitors.
 
I'm pretty sure that all those US theme parks that charge way more than Towers don't do it to encourage peope to use public transport!! Disney charge a lot to try and get you to use their own private bus from the airport, but that is just so they can keep you on property and stop you from visiting their competitors.

I was in Florida last week & SeaWorld were charging $25 for "Regular" parking. Didn't do Disney or Universal, but if Mr Google is correct, they also seem to charge $25 a day. If you've seen the vast sizes of the Disney parking lots in Orlando you can quickly work out that Disney are making a fortune on car parking - and this is before they relieve you of over $100 per person for walk-up park entry (no BOGOF's here!)

Many places in the UK that can be hard to get to by public transport (e.g. out of town retail parks, supermarkets etc) offer some form of free parking appropriate to the site. Sure there is often a time limit restriction, or pay & display with the fee refundable on making a purchase in the shop, so as to deter abuse of the carpark. Similarly, motorway service areas have to, by law, give 2hrs free parking as this is seen as appropriate time for a break in a journey.

The issue with Alton Towers charging for parking is that the public transport options to the park are very limited. In addition, when the parking charge was introduced it was widely stated it was to help fund the relief road, which was canned over 10yrs ago.

Just to prove that tolls / charges can be abolished - look at the Severn Bridge. OK, so the bridge is funded by the government / taxpayer & Merlin is a public company. Even so, I bet the up-keep on the Severn Bridges costs way more a year than it would cost Towers to resurface all the car parks & internal roads... on an annual basis.

On the subject of the state of the internal roads & carparks atTowers - I am sure that if they spoke to some of the visitors over Easter they may be able to get a cheap deal on a bit of tarmac work...!
 
Parking at the Orlando parks is a joke. Thank goodness for the SEAS parks there are plenty of tickets available that include it for free, still doesn't make it any better for single day guests though.
 
I went to Orlando end of last year and paid $22 I believe. But to be honest I went with 4 mate so we didnt think much to it as we expected to pay so put a pot of money together for the parking.

It really doesn't bother me that much. Its been like it for years and its unlikely to change so I just buck up and pay it
 
Come on Mako, the "free" parking charge is just hidden as part of the package, bundling in with a reduction doesnt really make it free, just hidden.
I suppose you could look at it that way. The packages didn't go up in price when they added "free" parking as a perk though.
 
I suppose you could look at it that way. The packages didn't go up in price when they added "free" parking as a perk though.

True. We had the £110 14 day SeaWorld / Aquatica / Busch ticket that included free parking. Bloody bargain as you could amass $350 worth of free parking alone over 14 days, before you've walked through a turnstile.

I should also add that in 3 days at SeaWorld, we did not witness any ride downtime either. Yes, the coasters were in single train operation (Kraken & Mako) and dual train / 1 station on Manta. Staggered opening too with Mako only opening at 11am.
 
I will never figure out how SeaWorld decide their staggered openings, pain in the arse they are. Sometimes they do them, sometimes they don't. Must be based on expected gate figures.
 
True. We had the £110 14 day SeaWorld / Aquatica / Busch ticket that included free parking. Bloody bargain as you could amass $350 worth of free parking alone over 14 days, before you've walked through a turnstile.

I should also add that in 3 days at SeaWorld, we did not witness any ride downtime either. Yes, the coasters were in single train operation (Kraken & Mako) and dual train / 1 station on Manta. Staggered opening too with Mako only opening at 11am.
I think if there was one expense that annoyed my family the most it was the parking charges. It's just so expensive and uncalled for. Although we had the unlimited tickets we were put off quick visits thanks to the parking.

Towers' parking charge isn't nearly as bad. I would support parking charges if there were decent public transport options.
 
Paid parking, in effect, makes entry tickets cheaper...you would not get a fifty quid annual pass out of Merlin for the Towers if parking was free.
Makes "headline" entrance fees lower.
 
Now here is one with lateral thinking...
Use the parking charges to reopen the rail line to Alton...
Have it as a tourist line to Stoke (is that where it went?), use steam trains, then a small cable car up to the entrance.
Accessible public transport that would boost the whole local economy, with zero new roads, and less congestion.
Get on with it Merlin and Staffordshire council.
Could we have a bar on the train as well please.
 
And here ladies and gentlemen is exactly my problem with the parking charge . There isn't any decent alternatives . If there was, I would also have no problem paying the charge.

Amen sir. Agree 100% - and I think many do. As I (& many on here with memories) remember, when the parking charge was introduced it was clearly stated it was to help fund the access road. Ralph Armond went on record saying this & also the fact that the parking attendant huts "would not be wooden shacks"... they are the next best thing in the shape of rubbish little portakabins! (Maybe they could redeploy any spare Stargazing Sheds to give the paid parking a bit of a theme to it).

If there was a viable public transport alternative, few would mind the parking charge, but there is practically zero alternative. Towers management know this, but cannot afford to lose the parking revenue stream as Merlin keep on cutting the budget the park is given to operate.

I do think Merlin will have to be very careful on how much they cutback - you can only cut back & charge so much before it starts to leave a sour taste in guests mouths and they are not inclined to return in a hurry. I feel Merlin are teetering on the cusp of this trigger point now.
 
Now here is one with lateral thinking...
Use the parking charges to reopen the rail line to Alton...
Have it as a tourist line to Stoke (is that where it went?), use steam trains, then a small cable car up to the entrance.
Accessible public transport that would boost the whole local economy, with zero new roads, and less congestion.
Get on with it Merlin and Staffordshire council.
Could we have a bar on the train as well please.
I'm sure there was a "rail ale trail" in Staffordshire when we were on holiday there...

Not sure if your post was serious, but I am. The railway would be fantastic, I wonder if they would have kept it knowing what Towers would become.. ?
 
Totally agree with others here. It was to fund a new road. It never happened. The monorail hours were cut too were they not. Maybe on those 4pm days you should pay less then as your not parking for as long!
 
I'm never sure if I'm being serious or not either speedy...
I studied traffic and network systems many years ago, had a real fix on B.A.R.T. in San Francisco when it was built.
It would be doable, and there are many current groups pushing for the reopening of old lines.
I read somewhere (Barry Zola?) that the line used to bring in thousands of people a day in years gone by, then the punters walked up through the bottom gates.
The station now is a holiday let I think, but most of the line is now a stunning cycle route, carries on past the bottom of the park next to the Churnet.
 
Yes , the railway line brought in thousands a day, and they walked in through the bottom gates you pass next to the old station now. And yes, the old station can be rented for holiday stays.
 
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