STIRRINGS...STATION STIRRINGS
FULL WHACK AT THE RAILWAY STATION? According to ChronicleLive, LNER waived permit fees for the first six months of lockdown; however at the end of October drivers were told to pay £253.75 to cover the remainder of the year, which represents a 50 per cent reduction on the usual amount.
In an email to the online news source, a spokesperson for the station drivers said: “The work has dropped so that footfall around the station is now less than 30 per cent of normal levels… some drivers are sitting in the rank for between nine and 12 hours a day but only carrying out three or four jobs…These new measures will have a huge detrimental effect on the taxi industry as a whole and any potential earnings for the foreseeable future.”
Steve Sholder, a taxi driver in the Newcastle-upon-Tyne area for about 40 years, said: “We have still got bills to pay and even with them charging 50 per cent we have got to make a decision on whether to pay the permit or put food on the table. The North East, as we all know, is one of the poorest areas in the country but Newcastle Central Station is one of the most expensive in the whole of the UK.”
A spokesperson from LNER stated that drivers who are struggling should get in touch with LNER to discuss additional support.
STATION STIRRINGS DOWN BURTON WAY
The matter of permit fees is further complicated in the Burton-on-Trent district of East Staffordshire, where a major revamp of the forecourt at Burton’s railway station – which was supposed to take five weeks – ended up taking over six months. This resulted in the permit holders being told to park on an adjoining road to the station, but parking wardens warned them they faced fines if they continued to park there.
So they were moved into the bridge outside the station at the bus stop, but there was only space for five taxis out of the 29 drivers who have station permits. Each of those drivers is paying £525 annually to East Midlands Railway to operate from the station… under those circumstances.
Burton taxi driver Nabil Razzak says he’s been left out of pocket and lost customers after experiencing problems with
JANUARY 2021
parking at the station. Mr Razzak, of Envoy Taxis, says he was given no compensation or refund for the loss of trade he experienced, but the price of permits has been frozen for two years.
A senior sponsor for Network Rail, which is responsible for the forecourt project, apologised for the length of time the development work took to complete, but said the work “will improve links for passengers”. Evidently those links do not include taking a taxi.
An East Midlands Railway spokesman said: “We are assessing whether in certain circumstances we are able to provide rate relief in the short term and will inform taxi drivers as soon as possible.”
THE GOVERNMENT’S POSITION
PHTM understands from various sources that the Government’s position in respect of intervening on station permit fees has varied, coming into the latest Tier 4 situation. One source said the DfT was not considering engaging with railway management companies on the issue; subsequently another report indicated that there may be some movement on this position.
We attempted to contact various officers at the Depart- ment for Transport for an authoritative quote or reply, but no response was forthcoming. There is no indication either in Hansard diaries or Transport Select Committee minutes to confirm a stance taken by any Minister or MP on the matter. We’ll have to pursue the subject and bring you an update in a later edition.
In the meantime, PHTM would be most interested to hear from any licence holders amongst our readers who have come across similar stumbling blocks in their district as regards the payment of railway permit fees. Whilst we understand that the railway industry has suffered finan- cially during the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, so too has our industry – to the extent of losing 80 per cent of our business in many districts. Surely a concession could be made towards the cost of a fee to ply at the rail- way station for so few passengers.
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