Car Parking

[thefatone]

$16 (£9.60) for Disney California compared to £6 ($10) at Alton. Even Disneys car park is better than Altons and has more staff in it / running transport

Now just think how much disney is making off that one carpark on an offpeak day.. compared to Towers when they'd have around 200 cars (coaches would bolster their numbers).

Bloody Disney.

 

[Novas]

I don't mind the parking charge. Like others have said it's a rip off, but it's so common nowdays that I subconsciously factor the price into any park visit.

As long as they maintain the monorail I'll keep quiet. They try and make me walk from car park M to the front gates and then they'll be blood.

 

[Islander]

They were gonna get some new barriers this year I believe, but budgets did not allow. Rather use outdated barrier systems which require staffing constantly it seems.

Strange thing is though, of the southern parks, all of which have the new style barriers, only Chessington leave them unmanned (a particular problem in North Car Park, where you have one exit barrier, therefore meaning that if a car has an issue it's blocked).

At both Lego and Thorpe, it seems that the barriers are left open whenever they're unmanned.

 

[Dave]

I live at the other end of that lane and pay Staffordshire council tax so have as much right to park there as anyone.

The council's contractors will have done the work but it doesn't mean they paid for it.
At the point where the posts have been installed the lane is not even that narrow so I don't see it as the residents complaining.

You can't request double yellow lines as a company to be installed on public roads though. I would guess one of two things happened. Either local people complained or the council saw a potential to make money on parking fines.

It's not in Towers interest to pay for the sake of at best 4 cars a day parking there, they wont give a flying monkeys other than the affect it has on relations with local residents. If they cared that much they would crack down on the massive amount of parking avoidance that happens on their own property.

I don't like parking charges though and think all parks should scrap them.

 

[djtruefitt]

From my recent visit down South, Chessie never seems to have anyone on their barriers on any of my visits to the park. Thorpe usually only have one or two staff covering all the barriers. However you go to towers and every barrier has a staff member. Surely in the long run it would be cheaper to install new barriers that accept all types of tickets and annual passes, then only have 1 or 2 staff there to keep an eye on things.

It wouldn't surprise me if there is a lot of loss from the barriers at towers. What is to stop the staff on the barriers taking cash off customers (i'm sure there are plenty of people who haven't bought a ticket, and just pay in cash) and then just taking the cash home with them? There really is no way of Merlin/Towers knowing how many cars have gone through the barriers, as the staff often just press the button to open the barriers.

In terms of parking, it would be so funny if a guy who owned a field right near towers to charge £3 a day to park there. If it was opposite the gate, you would be even near the park entrance than the Alton Towers car parks!

 

[Enter Valhalla]

It's all well and good if you visit once a year but I don't I properly go about 10 times a year, sometimes just for an hour or two.
That's going to cost me another £60 over the year so one has to decide if it's worth keeping the annual pass any longer.
It was so handy parking there as like has been said it's right next to the entrance, you turn up scan your pass and your in, now it's an extra hour getting to the entrance as well.

Out of interest is there any bike racks or storage lockers at the entrance? Although they probably would be a fiver as well knowing AT.

This was exactly my point. Most of my visits are after me and my partner have finished work so we don't get to the park until around 2:30ish. Why should we pay £6 for just a few hours parking? Yes, we could get premium passes, but on principle why should we pay the extra, particularly as it used to be free for standard annual pass holders?

I'm sure if Drayton Manor or Flamingo Land had brought in two tiers of pass and forced regular visitors in to a position where they needed to cough up more in order to pay for a premium one simply to avoid the parking charge, then people would condemn them and would say it was terrible, but because Alton Towers do it, most people seem to think it's acceptable.

 

[TheMan]

Hmmmph. I am going to defend Towers here. Frighteningly.

Their standard pass is cheap when on sale, like a ton, or less with vouchers? A huge amount of their attractions bar Alton can be reached without parking needed. Alton's the only one.

OK 6 quid is STEEP for a couple of hours parking, I think they could do something about that somehow but what I don't know.

Maybe a way of buying tickets on the door cheaper after 1pm or something, wouldn't be hard to do really.

Passes are no where near as good value as they were, and the service in the parks is getting worse, Varney is to blame for this - it's a clear issue with his tenure. It starts from the top down, he's lost his Theme Park love (if he had it) & become pure business.

Out of interest, why not just get a Towers pass if that's the only place you visit? That's cheaper?

 

[Rob]

Universal Orlando are increasing their parking charge to $17 to match Disney's incease; that is over £10. However parking between 6pm and 10pm is $6. If Towers were to ever introduce a reduced parking fee later in the day which it seems that some people would like they would have to completely change the way people currently pay for parking. You would need a pay on entry scheme like many parks in Europe and the USA have. However currently there is no space for such a development. I think it would only happen alongside an access road, and I'm pretty sure that won't be happening for the forseforeseeable future.

 

[Ian]

I think, like you say Rob, many systems would require pay on entry. The problem is that it simply isn't practical at Alton. It's not uncommon to queue right back from the entrance gates on busier days, and that's with no cars really needing to stop other than for the traffic lights. Adding a barrier or payment system which people have to wait for whilst others sort change, etc would only create further tailbacks, and choke up the roads through the village, which I'm sure the locals wouldn't be too happy about, given houses on the corner only have that one road in and out!

Under the current system at least the queues at the end of the day remain within the park property, and don't impact the locals as much as they could do.

 

[Jordan]

Pay on entry could work, but you would need enough barriers (manned at all times) that you could get a throughput equivalent to the rate at which people currently drive in.

 

[James]

Or they could go for a system like most city centre car parks. You get a ticket at barrier entering park. Pay for your ticket after leaving the park at designated machine (replace them where current machines are now), THEN get in your car and put ticket in machine at barrier to get out.

Would be fairly simple and it's a tried and tested system in many busy city centres so wouldn't be risky for Towers as long as enough barriers are in place.

They could apply something like 1-3 hours you're charged £3 and 3+ hours charged £6. This would also clamp down on people getting away with parking for free too!

Only downfall is that it still leaves guests paying more after they leave the park. But Towers doesn't seem bothered to change the parking system at the moment anyway.

 

[jon81uk]

and there would be space as the cars could enter through the current exit. But this would slow the entry of cars down leading to even bigger queues to get in.

Or maybe they could have someone on the car park entrance after 3pm giving vouchers so when you purchase a car park token it is half price?

 

[Rob]

The main problem with any barriers on entry is the queues that it will cause. It's only natural that if every car has to stop at a barrier, even if only for a few seconds, will cause more queues than there are currently. You would need a lot of entry barriers to reduce the queues and there just isn't space for this.

Towers would not get permission to do something that is guaranteed to cause more queues on the outside roads on busier days. Any change in parking system requires major work on re-doing the entrance and exits to the resort. There's no way they would be able to justify the cost just to make a few people who come for a couple of hours in the afternoon happy.

 

[James]

It's possible to create a system and not have mass congestion (like I said it's a tried and tested system in busy city centres). Although yes it would involve some investment I doubt Towers or Merlin are willing to bother with.

I still think a starting point would be to offer car parking paid online in advance. That's one easy step they could take to ensure smoother operations on park at the end of ride close.

 

[smudge]

People have to stop at the barriers anyway, to hand over the token, so no difference there.

Online print-at-home parking tickets would cost very little to implement and save a lot of faff upon exit, plus it means that the people who pay online ( maybe even £1 cheaper ? ) don't leave with a bitter taste either.

 

[Rob]

The cars stopping at the barriers at the moment are leaving the park though, not entering, so any queues are kept within the car parks and not out on the surrounding roads.

I agree that the best change they can make at the moment is to allow people to pay for parking online before their visit.

 

[Dave]

Can't imagine it's cheap but the new registration camera parking systems are quite good, cameras at the entrance record your registration and when you pay you input that and it tells you how much you owe.

Too much hassle though for the small number of guests who come after 1pm.

 

[Scott]

It's possible to create a system and not have mass congestion (like I said it's a tried and tested system in busy city centres). Although yes it would involve some investment I doubt Towers or Merlin are willing to bother with.

I still think a starting point would be to offer car parking paid online in advance. That's one easy step they could take to ensure smoother operations on park at the end of ride close.

But with this system you would need to still have a mass of entry barriers to obtain your entry ticket from. There isn't space for it and the stopping at barriers would massively increase congestion outside the park gates.

 

[James]

If you're in the mind frame of one or two barriers being put on the current roads then yes mass congestion will happen. 4-6 barriers however and a restructure of the roads (they are hardly limited with the land in that area, could extend to fields) would result in a more refined system that would not result in such congestion. Not really worth the fuss though when simpler things can be put in place (like buying tickets online).

 

[jon81uk]

Its not worthwhile installing barriers for a charge per hour system when so many people come for the whole day. If they did want to give cheaper parking after 3pm they would be better just to hand out vouchers as you enter so you can buy cheaper parking at the ticket window.

Print at home would be great but they need to upgrade the current barriers to the same ones that Thorpe have (you can now buy parking on Thorpes booking page). Currently adding print at home wouln't change much.