Harpenden Station parking:

[Katie55]

Hello there!

We are moving to Harpenden this summer and have found a place a bit too far from the station to walk. DH and I will both be commuting into London and were hoping to get parking season tickets by the station. Could anyone help understand how easy it is to park by the station and do you get an assigned parking space? Is the traffic usually bad in and out of the station? We will most likely be taking a train before 8 am in the morning.

Just want to weight all the pros and cons before we commit.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Can't help you re the actual parking spaces at the station, but the traffic around the station is awful during morning and evening rush-hours .I'm sure you've seen the size of both car parks and they are both full by about 9.30 so an awful lot of cars have to arrive through 2 small entrances. Not helped by the fact that both car parks have very narrow entrances so 2 way traffic is difficult. Plus station road itself is very busy, heavy traffic, buses etc. Queues to leave the car park in the evening rush hour can be long.
Also, thameslink are in the throes of introducing their "new" trains, in which they have removed some of the seating to allow more standing room and thus take more passengers. My DH now rarely gets a seat at Harpenden in the morning.

But its a lovely place to live!

You never ever get an assigned parking space at a train station car park. Have you checked the cost of a season ticket too? Likely to be pretty pricey.

According to this it's £1135 a year to park.

By the way, have you considered cycling to the train station? That's what I do to my local station in Hertfordshire, to commute into London. Free, guaranteed no sitting in queues of traffic, predictable timing to get to the station, I always get a bike rack space.

They do have special assigned spaces at Harpenden station. They're the ones closest to the station entrance and are great in that you don't have to allow extra time to find a space and you don't have to treck back from the far end of the car park, but obviously they're more expensive. cycling might work, they've just installed new double decker bike racks to try and cater for all cyclists

Whoops! . Sorry to mislead! Are there the same number of reserved spaces as people who have paid the season ticket money?

No you can pay for premier parking at Harpenden station and that does give you your own space - my neighbours do it - it's just over £100 more than a standard parking season ticket