Park and taken for a ride

Good news for Beardie Rail profits.

Car parking charges at Crewe Station are being increased today from £6 to £8.

As car parking charges are not regulated Virgin is of course free to charge whatever it feels the market will stomach.

However, chairman Sir Richard Branson may not have had rail passengers' stomachs in mind... judging by this photo from today's Mail on Sunday...




Any additional comment would be pure sour grapes!

UPDATE: This from David at Railtalk:

I think that you will find that the charges are only going up by £2.00 to £8.00, they have been £6.00 for quite some time.

Whilst any increase is unwelcome, pity the poor souls on the East Coast, who have to pay considerably more.

York for example is £12.00 per day. Rip off GNER prices, and National Express has carried them on.

Duly corrected, thank you David. The Fact Compiler's mind may have been on other things at the time of posting...

There may be troubles ahead...

Oh dear, oh dear.

Has there been a falling out between DMGT (Daily Mail and General Trust) and Network Rail?

Judging by the number of stories in today's Mail on Sunday it certainly appears so.

To quote just one:

"Ian Coucher was hired as deputy chief executive and Victoria Pender as head of government affairs. At the time, both were working for London Underground as ‘freelances’, via their consultancy Coucher Pender.

"The firm, registered to Ms Pender’s home in West Sussex, was also used as the conduit for the pair’s payments from Network Rail.

"Their freelance status allowed them to qualify for bonuses paid only to employees and entitled them to tax breaks, a situation that continued until 2007 when Coucher became chief executive. Ms Pender is believed to have retained her freelance status."

Perhaps NR should try suing for peace...