New thinking for parking at rail stations?

Parking policy and management are important elements of any integrated transport strategy. Changing travel trends mean that new takes on parking facility design may be required at key hubs such as rail stations

Parking policy and management are important elements of any integrated transport strategy. Parking helps to shape travel behaviour and development economics, as well as the urban design and accessibility features of key transport hubs such as rail stations.

Parking cannot be considered in isolation – it must be considered as part of a wider picture of transport and travel consideration. For example, the potential impacts of on-street parking could be a particular concern if rail users thought station parking charges to be unfair, and decided to park in local residential streets.

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Network Rail's current Parking and Mobility at Stations Design Manual already provides guidance for parking and mobility planning in and around stations – establishing the vision for the future integration and use of emerging mobility technologies and services. It says: "Peoples' travel patterns, preferences and behaviours are changing, with this transformation expected to continue over the coming decade accelerated by advances in technology that have potential to improve transport and mobility services, reduce costs, and revolutionise business models.

"The drivers of these transformations can broadly be categorised within the following themes: demographic and social, economic, environmental, political and technological. These drivers of change are not mutually exclusive: they are working both independently and together to transform the rail sector and life more generally."

While the manual is expected to inform current projects, it also looks to the future, assessing current innovations and trends and their impact on how people will access railway stations and the changes to parking facility design required to accommodate them.

For parking and mobility at stations, six design considerations have been established that link back to our guiding principles. These considerations should steer the design process in the case of railway station parking and mobility facilities and allow designers to respond to the ways in which mobility may be redefined in a low carbon economy

The guidance within aligns with broader UK government mobility policies and strategies, including the Future of Mobility report, which assessed how the UK transport system could change up to 2040, Transport Vision 2050, which predicts an increase in the use of most travel modes alongside a trend towards alternative forms of mobility and Gear Change, which sets out an ambition for half of all journeys in towns and cities to be cycled or walked by 2050.

Parking management at railway stations is, therefore, coming increasingly into focus as the stations of today gradually transform into the mobility hubs of tomorrow.

Consultants from German digital consultancy Detecon (an independent company within the Deutsche Telekom Group) worked with Swiss Railways to analyse how to maximise the opportunities for parking as "networked mobility services" at rail stations. 

Making parking work harder

Park and Rail" (P+Rail) areas primarily serve people who drive their cars to the nearest station and then cover most of their commuting distance by public transport, for example by train.

These large zones are frequently situated at centrally attractive locations, often in the centres of municipalities, and can work much harder for customers, service providers and station operators such as SBB, says Detecon.

In addition to basic services such as reservation options, simplified payment and a charging infrastructure for electric cars, various additional services could be offered while the vehicle is parked in the parking area: cleaning, inspections and minor repairs, or the delivery and deposit of purchases directly in the car. 

These are all services that can be offered by regional or national companies in cooperation with railway operators such as SBB and make can help to make travelling or commuting even easier, more personal, more connected and more efficient. 

Ultimately, parking evolution is about offering different vehicles and services a range of uses across these sites, and also creating space for scooters, motorbikes, bicycles and vehicles with one or more wheels. Pure car parking management thus develops into an integrated mobility space management, says Detecon.

All of the above services must of course not only function on site with the right infrastructure. They should also be (digitally) easy to book by customers, or customers should be alerted to current information and offers at the right time. That is why Detecon is working on further developing the SBB "P+Rail App" as a digital parking platform that will in future make it possible to find out about the various services available and to book them directly.

Such analysis leads to the generation of data on how many, and what kinds of, parking spaces will be needed in the distant future due to the change in mobility use. According to Detecon's future scenarios, parking spaces will continue to be needed in Switzerland in the coming years and that demand will even increase. However, due to increasing car sharing, the increased use of "ridehailing" services and other new mobility solutions, they expect that demand will decrease in the long term.