Transport for West Midlands: Rail Park-and-Ride Charging Options

Context

Parking Perspectives has been supporting Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) as it develops future plans for its network of rail and metro park-and-ride sites.

TfWM is taking a wide-ranging look at how these sites can best serve the region’s needs. It wants to increase the role of sustainable modes in accessing stations. Meanwhile, heavy budget pressures are making the current free-of-charge parking offer at most sites is becoming difficult to sustain.

Our Contribution

We developed and tested options for introducing user charges at some or all sites.

Working with TfWM officers, we developed a range of options for potential charging policies, including flat rates, varying rates according to the nature of the station, and expanding the current Save-a-space reserved parking offer.

We also carried out on-street parking surveys to provide evidence on current overspill levels.

We tested the impacts of each option in an updated version of the parking allocation models that we had developed for TfWM in an earlier project.

The models test how park-and-ride users may respond, with a variety of potential responses such as continuing to park-and-ride, switching to on-street parking where available, using other modes to reach the station, or driving all the way.

Deliverables

We translated the results into key indicators including the financial impact, total vehicle-kilometres and the impact on rail ridership.

We also provided a ‘dashboard’ so that the client team can deep-dive into individual stations.

With this analysis, TfWM can make informed and evidenced decisions on the way forward.

Client: Transport for West Midlands
August 2025