Survey reveals commuters clog up car park (From Keighley News)

Survey reveals commuters clog up car park

10:10am Thursday 11th June 2009 in Aire By Lisa Campbell

A survey of commuters who use Steeton and Silsden Railway Station car park has shown that passengers travel from as far away as Preston to use the station.

The Joint Transport Working Group conducted a questionnaire of station users in a bid to discover who is using the car park and why it gets congested so early in the day. The investigation began after complaints that railway users’ cars clogged up nearby residential streets and the car park was too full for locals who couldn’t walk to the station to use.

The results backed up the working group’s theory that people travelled from far and wide to use the station to commute to Leeds to take advantage of cheaper rail fares, because Metro classified the station in a different price zone.

Cllr Mullen said: “We began the survey at 6.45am, at which point there were about 42 cars parked there. By the time we left three hours later there were 240 cars parked — so it is morning commuters filling it up. Although they have brought out a new Metro card for commuters from Skipton and Harrogate, it is still twice the cost of a Metro card from Steeton. So for anybody going to Leeds or Bradford, it doesn’t make commercial sense to buy it and they will still come here.”