COMMUTERS who use the Cocklebury Road car park near Chippenham train station are furious after prices shot up by 66 per cent last week.

The cost of all-day parking at the car park, which is the one furthest away from the station operated by APCOA, has jumped from £3 to £5.

The price hike has angered many travellers who say they were not informed about it and that the rise is excessive.

Fred Smith, 65, from Chippenham, who uses the car park once a week, said: “It really is rather shocking and rather disappointing. The rail company has franchised out the car park to a company and gives poor customer service.

“The railway should be subsidising parking to encourage passengers to use the train but this type of increase no longer makes economic sense, it could be cheaper to drive.”

“I noticed the price increase on Friday,” said Tony Over, of Carmarthen, in Wales, who uses the car park two or three times a week. “I book it online so it costs me 20p extra and I got a message saying it had gone from £3.20 to £5.20, which is a bit sneaky to say the least.

“I am quite surprised. Why has it gone up by so much? They could have given us a bit of notice saying when and why it is going up – that would have been appropriate.”

Corsham resident Chris Rice, who uses the car park a couple of times a month, said: “That is quite a sharp rise and What is worrying is that now they have gone up in price, the others may follow.

“It is never good to see but I guess that is supply and demand. It is definitely sly of them to increase it by £2.”

Great Western Railway owns station car parks one and three, which cost £7.10 a day to park, and car park two which is for tariff parking.

APCOA said last week that it was not responsible for the car parking increases, which were set by the car park owners Network Rail.

Network Rail had not responded to the Gazette’s request for comment at the time of going to press.