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Croston Parish Council's response to Northern Rail's Proposal to Consider Introducing Car Park Charges at the Station

19th of April, 2024

Northern Rail: Consultation on Considering  introducing parking charges at Croston Railway Station.

At its meeting on the 10th April 2024 Croston Parish Council resolved to write with regards to its concerns as to Northern Rail’s  proposal to introduce car parking charges at Croston Railway Station.

Our email stated the  Parish Council’s concerns, as per the following bullet points:

  • Croston village may lose rail commuters driven out by the introduction of car parking charges 
  • The knock-on effect of fewer commuters may result in less subsidy support from Lancashire County Council, a further risk that the train service may cease completely.
  • The Parish Council feels that we should be encouraging train use and less car use, not penalising car drivers with parking charges to use the train.
  • The Parish Council feels it has a duty of care to support parishioners’ access to easy train journeys, the introduction of car parking charges will make it less easy and affordable to parishioners to use the train. 
  • The introduction of parking charges will just move the parking to roads around the station which are already heavily congested.
  • Croston is a rural area and older and vulnerable parishioners may benefit from train passes, having parked their cars at the station. Car parking charges will discourage those on less income to use the train.

Chorley Borough Councillor Alan Platt also wrote to Northern Rail  with objections to the proposal:

I would like to register my objections to the proposal to introduce parking fees for Croston Station.

Regular rail users have confirmed they have never had a problem parking on the car park, which appears to demonstrate this is merely a thinly disguised attempt at revenue raising.

Could I suggest you take a look around Buckshaw Parkway to observe the consequences of the introduction of charging parking fees for rail users. Adjacent roads now suffer quite serious issues due to vehicles left by drivers not willing to pay to park to access the rail service. 

Alternatively, could a scheme not be introduced to offer rail users car parking within the price of the ticket, thus ensuring the people who should be using the car park are able to do so.

CPC looks forward to hearing the outcome of the consultation and will keep you  updated on this website .