A park and ride railway station is a railway station designed to be used for park and ride. [1]
Noorderkempen railway station in Brecht, opened in 2009 on the HSL 4 high-speed line, functions as a park and ride for Antwerp and to a lesser extent Breda.
In New Zealand, Auckland and Wellington have extensive electrified suburban networks; see Public transport in the Wellington Region (Khandallah railway station right) and Public transport in Auckland (Swanson railway station below). Many suburban stations have park and ride facilities.
Several mainly park-and-ride-status railway stations in England have the suffix "parkway" in their name. The etymology is from the original U.S. meaning as the Bristol Parkway railway station was named after the adjacent M32 motorway, originally known as The Parkway because of its green-buffered route into the city. Bristol Parkway was the first railway station so named, in 1972. The majority of such stations were opened in the late 20th century to relieve pressure on existing city centre stations. Examples such as Didcot Parkway are renamings following the expansion of the car parking facilities where the name is used promotionally (for example commuters to Oxford are encouraged to leave their car at Didcot and travel to Oxford by train) whereas in others with multi-storey car parks serving modest settlements such as Brookwood and Fleet the suffix has not been adopted.
Luton Airport Parkway and Southampton Airport Parkway are examples serving Luton and Southampton airports. Some were so named as they are not in easy walking distance of an airport terminal; passengers use shuttle bus services. Southampton Airport Parkway is within easy walking distance of Southampton Airport. It has extensive car parking of its own, intended for use by commuters rather than users of the airport.
In the United States, it is common for outlying rail stations to include automobile parking, often with hundreds of spaces. Boston, for example, has built several large parking facilities at its commuter rail and metro stations near major highways and large arterial surface roads around the periphery of the city: Alewife, Braintree, Forest Hills, Hyde Park, Quincy Adams, Riverside, Route 128, Wellington, Woburn. The local transit operator, the MBTA, offers 46,000 park and ride spaces.
Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are considered heavy rail, using electrified or diesel trains. Distance charges or zone pricing may be used.
Transportation in Boston includes roadway, subway, regional rail, air, and sea options for passenger and freight transit in Boston, Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) operates the Port of Boston, which includes a container shipping facility in South Boston, and Logan International Airport, in East Boston. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates bus, subway, short-distance rail, and water ferry passenger services throughout the city and region. Amtrak operates passenger rail service to and from major Northeastern cities, and a major bus terminal at South Station is served by varied intercity bus companies. The city is bisected by major highways I-90 and I-93, the intersection of which has undergone a major renovation, nicknamed the Big Dig.
Bristol Parkway, on the South Wales Main Line, is in the Stoke Gifford area in the northern suburbs of the Bristol conurbation. It is 112 miles (180 km) from London Paddington. The station was opened in 1972 by British Rail, and was the first in a new generation of park and ride/parkway stations. It is the third-most heavily used station in the West of England local authority area, after Bristol Temple Meads and Bath Spa. There are four platforms, and a well-equipped waiting area. The station is managed by Great Western Railway, who provide most of the trains at the station, with CrossCountry providing the rest.
A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system, or carpool for the remainder of the journey. The vehicle is left in the parking lot during the day and retrieved when the owner returns. Park and rides are generally located in the suburbs of metropolitan areas or on the outer edges of large cities. A park and ride that only offers parking for meeting a carpool and not connections to public transport may also be called a park and pool.
Intermodal passenger transport, also called mixed-mode commuting, involves using two or more modes of transportation in a journey. Mixed-mode commuting is often used to combine the strengths of various transportation options. A major goal of modern intermodal passenger transport is to reduce dependence on the automobile as the major mode of ground transportation and increase use of public transport. To assist the traveller, various intermodal journey planners such as Rome2rio and Google Transit have been devised to help travellers plan and schedule their journey.
Didcot Parkway is a railway station serving the town of Didcot in Oxfordshire, England. The station was opened as Didcot on 12 June 1844 and renamed Didcot Parkway on 29 July 1985 by British Rail to reflect its role as a park and ride railhead. It is 53 miles 10 chains down the line from London Paddington and is situated between Cholsey to the east and Swindon to the west.
Luton Airport Parkway railway station is on the Midland Main Line in England, serving south Luton and Luton Airport in Bedfordshire. It is situated in Park Town, Luton, and is 29 miles 19 chains (47.1 km) down the line from London St Pancras between Harpenden to the south and Luton to the north. Its three-letter station code is LTN, also the IATA code for the airport.
An airport rail link is a service providing passenger rail transport from an airport to a nearby city by mainline or commuter trains, rapid transit, people mover, or light rail. Direct links operate straight to the airport terminal, while other systems require an intermediate use of people mover or shuttle bus.
Lostock railway station serves the suburbs of Heaton and Lostock in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. Built for the Liverpool and Bury Railway in 1852, the station was closed in 1966, then reopened on a smaller scale in 1988 to serve commuters.
Southampton Airport Parkway railway station is on the South West Main Line located in the south of Eastleigh in Hampshire, England, 74 miles 66 chains (120.4 km) down the line from London Waterloo. It is adjacent to Southampton Airport.
Nailsea and Backwell railway station, on the Bristol to Exeter line, is in the village of Backwell, close to the town of Nailsea in North Somerset, England. It is 8 miles (13 km) west of Bristol Temple Meads railway station, and 126 miles (203 km) from London Paddington. The station, opened in 1841 by the Bristol and Exeter Railway, has two platforms but little in the way of facilities. It is managed by Great Western Railway, the seventh company to be responsible for the station, and the third franchise since privatisation in 1997. The company provides all train services at the station, mainly hourly services between Bristol Parkway and Weston-super-Mare, and between Cardiff Central and Taunton.
Bristol is a city in south west England, near the Bristol Channel coast, approximately 106 miles (170 km) west of London. Several factors have influenced the development of its transport network. It is a major centre of employment, retail, culture and higher education, has many historic areas, and has a history of maritime industry. The city has a population of 450,000, with a metropolitan area of 650,000, and lies at the centre of the former County of Avon, which includes many dormitory towns, and has a population of one million.
Warwick Parkway is a railway station with Park and Ride facilities on the western outskirts of Warwick in Warwickshire, England. It also serves the village of Budbrooke. The station is owned by Network Rail and Warwickshire County Council.
Transport in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, is defined by factors that include the shape of the Auckland isthmus, the suburban character of much of the urban area, a history of focusing investment on roading projects rather than public transport, and high car-ownership rates.
Transport in Cardiff, capital and most populous city in Wales involves road, rail, bus, water and air. It is a major city of the United Kingdom and a centre of employment, government, retail, business, culture, media, sport and higher education.
An airport bus, or airport shuttle bus or airport shuttle is a bus used to transport people to and from, or within airports. These vehicles will usually be equipped with larger luggage space, and incorporate special branding. They are also commonly painted with bright colours to stand out among other airport vehicles and to be easily seen by the crews of taxiing aircraft when negotiating the aprons.
Urban or suburban rail plays a key role in public transport in many of the United Kingdom's major cities. Urban rail refers to the train service between city centres and suburbs or nearby towns that acts as a main mode of transport for travellers on a daily basis.
The New Zealand British Rail Mark 2 carriages were built by British Rail Engineering Limited for British Rail in the early 1970s. From the mid-1990s, 150 were exported to New Zealand. After being rebuilt, refurbished and re-gauged, they entered service with a variety of operators on New Zealand's railway network. The carriages generally replaced older NZR 56-foot carriages, some of which had been in use for almost 70 years.
Network Rail planned to spend £5 billion on modernising the Great Western Main Line, its South Wales branch and other associated lines. The modernisation plans were announced at separate times but their development time-scales overlap in the 2010s. The work included electrification, resignalling, new rolling stock and station upgrades. According to Network Rail, the modernisation started in June 2010 and was due to end in 2017. As of December 2019, electrification was complete as far west as Cardiff Central, and also from Reading to Newbury.