Car parks to cover bad smells with … nice ones!

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

In an effort to win over more customers, car park stairwells are to be made more fragrant and inviting – by having pleasant smells piped into them.

The car park company NCP is to make use of new technology to purge its stairwells of offensive smells, especially urine and vomit, which are putting off many customers.

In the survey carried out by NCP, two-thirds of those polled said that stairwells were the foulest-smelling part of car parks, with one third associating these areas with the smell of urine. 

The company will pump pleasant smells through the stairwells of a number of its busiest sites in London, Birmingham, Leeds and Cardiff. The scent of flowers came top in the ‘smell poll’ they conducted, followed by mint, cut grass and freshly-baked bread.

By wafting pleasant smells through the car park environment, NCP hopes to win back returning customers and entice new ones. Andrew Potter, NCP’s chief executive, said, “by introducing pleasant smells, we are following through on our commitment to improving the customer experience and providing greater value for money”.

However the initiative was criticised by Hugh Bladon of the Association of British Drivers, who said that NCP would be better off increasing car park security to prevent people using stairwells as toilets. “Stairwells particularly smell because people use them as toilets,” he said. “Sorting that out would be the best way to solve the problem. The smell wouldn’t put me off using a car park, the price it charges to park there would.”

But NCP’s survey tells a different story, showing that many car park users are in fact deterred from coming back to car park purely on the basis of the bad smells they encounter … so masking offensive smells with very pleasant aromas may well have the desired result of coaxing customers back.

For press enquiries, please contact Peter Cooper on 020 7183 7247
Email: info@247parking.com
Web: www.247parking.com

News provided by 24 7 Parking Ltd, a leading marketing services provider to the car parking industry in the UK, and a leading de facto marketplace for buyers and sellers, or lessees and lessors, of car parking spaces.

24 7 Parking carries out daily surveys of the national media to provide up-to-date news and commentary on UK transport.

Tube improvements at serious risk

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

More bad news for London’s Tube passengers emerged last week, with a report from the London Assembly revealing that planned improvements to the Underground system could be shelved or badly delayed due to a looming funding crisis.

The report, produced by the Assembly’s transport committee, said that in order to avoid hellish overcrowding scenarios on the Tube, the government must meet additional costs incurred by Tube Lines, the remaining private sector partner in London Underground’s public private partnership (PPP) maintenance deal.

The other private subcontractor, the “spectacularly inefficient” maintenance company, Metronet, collapsed in 2007, leaving TfL a debt burden of some £3bn.

The report highlights the serious risks to the upgrade programme as a result of the current dispute over costs for the maintenance and upgrade of the Underground between Transport for London (TfL) and maintenance contractor Tube Lines. London Underground had costed the work scheduled for 2010-17 at £4.1bn while Tube Lines valued the work at £7.2bn. The arbiter of the dispute concluded that Tube Lines could legitimately charge £5.1bn-5.5bn for the scheduled work.

This discrepancy in the estimates put additional strain on TfL’s already squeezed budgets, resulting in work ceasing on several projects and TfL being forced to find £2.4bn of efficiency savings by 2017-18.

If additional funding is not made available, essential upgrades to the Piccadilly, Northern and Jubilee lines – including congestion relief, tunnel cooling and step-free access plans – will fall by the wayside. The refurbishment of some 75 stations – around half the number due to be completed by 2010 – has already been pushed back until 2017 because of the shortfall in TfL’s budget.

The report urged TfL to revise its 2009-17 business plan to take on board the increasing costs and for TfL and LU to be more open and accountable about the actual progress made – or not made.

The panel’s comments were welcomed by London’s mayor Boris Johnson, and a spokesman for his office said, “As the report says, the tube upgrades must proceed, and the government, which inflicted the [PPP] system upon London against its will, must step up to the plate and ensure funding is delivered.”
Unless that happens, one thing is certain – London’s already beleaguered Tube passengers will be facing even worse conditions on an overcrowded and poorly maintained network.

For press enquiries, please contact Peter Cooper on 020 7183 7247
Email: info@247parking.com
Web: www.247parking.com

News provided by 24 7 Parking Ltd, a leading marketing services provider to the car parking industry in the UK, and a leading de facto marketplace for buyers and sellers, or lessees and lessors, of car parking spaces.

24 7 Parking carries out daily surveys of the national media to provide up-to-date news and commentary on UK transport.

A flexible c-charge proposed for London

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, is proposing changes to the capital’s congestion charge which would make the scheme fairer for motorists. The changes would involve scrapping the £8 daily flat rate and having different rates depending on the time of day the motorist enters the zone, as well as setting up a billing system to make it easier to pay the charge.

While he has made clear his intention to keep the congestion charge, which he believes plays a crucial role in reducing the number of cars in central London, Mr. Johnson had talked of making changes to the scheme since taking office, with the introduction of variable rates being an option from the start. He is also keen on introducing an account-based billing system, and has asked Transport for London (TfL) to make the changes needed to put this in place as soon as possible.

Drivers entering the congestion zone at any time between 7am and 6pm on weekdays currently pay a fixed rate of £8 on the day of travel, or £10 the day after travel. The proposed changes would see motorists paying more to enter the central zone during peak hours and less at other times of the day. This system is based on the one used in Stockholm, and IBM, the company that set up the Swedish system, will take over the contract for congestion charging in London in November.

The proposal to have varying charges was welcomed by the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, whose chief executive Colin Stanbridge said: “These changes, if implemented, would make the c-charge fairer, flexible and more business friendly” and would also be good for business, as cheaper charges between rush hours “would attract more shoppers into London and provide a vital life line to our retailers”.
 
However,critics of the proposal, including the Green party, pointed out that London’s rush hour is ongoing throughout the day, therefore having varying charges would make little sense – it would simply encourage more cars into the city centre, leading to an inevitable increase in traffic and pollution.

A Labour transport spokesperson on the London assembly, Val Shawcross, warned that a price cut in the charge “would be a dangerous green light for more cars to come in and clog up central London”. He berated the mayor’s vision for London as “developing into ‘motorist first, everything else second’.”

Whatever the pro’s and con’s of the mayor’s proposal, there is clearly a pressing need to tackle the capital’s traffic problems, especially as recent research has shown that congestion in the central zone has risen back to pre-congestion charge levels. Nevertheless, TfL says that congestion would be worse without the “sustained traffic reductions brought about by the charge”.
 
For press enquiries, please contact Peter Cooper on 020 7183 7247
Email: info@247parking.com
Web: www.247parking.com

News provided by 24 7 Parking Ltd, a leading marketing services provider to the car parking industry in the UK, and a leading de facto marketplace for buyers and sellers, or lessees and lessors, of car parking spaces.

24 7 Parking carries out daily surveys of the national media to provide up-to-date news and commentary on UK transport.

Commuter train trips take longer now

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

Some commuter train journeys into London take more time now than they did in 1930, according to new research from the London School of Economics.

The study compared timetables from before the Second World War with the 20 busiest journeys in Britain today, and found that some trains run slower now and that rail passengers have a longer waiting time. The commute from Wimbledon to London, for example, takes three minutes longer today, and from Surbiton two minutes longer.

The demise of slam doors was cited as a key factor in slowing things down, as automatic doors take longer to open and shut.

Dr Tim Leunig of LSE said, “People care about every minute. You could be waiting up to 29 hours a year, which would work out as four bank holidays being taken away.”

However, in defence of the rail services, a spokesman for the Association of Train Operating Companies said they were in fact much better nowadays: “While there might have been some journeys which were on paper faster  before the war, they were not as dependable nor was there the choice of service that there is today.”

Separate figures released in August 2008 showed that despite faster trains and track improvements, rail journeys take around five minutes more than they did 20 years ago, especially in London and the South East. News of longer journeys emerged at a time when commuters were bracing themselves for big fare increases. However, while journeys were taking slightly longer, more trains were being run and punctuality was running at record levels.

All of which suggests that rail passengers can have either speedier journeys or more reliable services – but not both! 

For press enquiries, please contact Peter Cooper on 020 7183 7247
Email: info@247parking.com
Web: www.247parking.com

News provided by 24 7 Parking Ltd, a leading marketing services provider to the car parking industry in the UK, and a leading de facto marketplace for buyers and sellers, or lessees and lessors, of car parking spaces.

24 7 Parking carries out daily surveys of the national media to provide up-to-date news and commentary on UK transport.