City center 'season parking passes' [MCR]

ultralaser · 23 Jul 2018 at 19:49

Hey,

Looking at how expensive commuting into Manchester city centre would be from one of the nicer areas on the outskirts - I'm not a fan of public transport so was looking at parking in the centre (which I expect to be expensive). I hear some of the major car parks do 'season passes' that are a fair bit cheaper than paying on the day. Does anyone else use them? Can you park in any of a companies car parks in the city or just a particular one? What kinda of costs would I be looking at (assuming a very central location)? Finding the information hard to come by unless I actually sign up for certain sites (which I dislike!).

Thanks! Never heard of these season tickets before so hoping the wise and good of GD can help

Utralaser.

Dazzy · 23 Jul 2018 at 19:58

Look on the ncp season ticket website. Depending on which car park I would budget around 120-150/month. Slightly less if you sign up for a longer period. Less again if you park in a sketchy independent place or further out of the city.

Not sure whether you do it already but driving into Manchester city centre is hellish. Complete gridlock after 7.30am in the morning and after around 3.30pm in the evening. It can take around 45 minutes to get 5 miles out of the city centre.

ultralaser · 23 Jul 2018 at 20:10

Dazzy said:
Look on the ncp season ticket website. Depending on which car park I would budget around 120-150/month. Slightly less if you sign up for a longer period. Less again if you park in a sketchy independent place or further out of the city.

Not sure whether you do it already but driving into Manchester city centre is hellish. Complete gridlock after 7.30am in the morning and after around 3.30pm in the evening. It can take around 45 minutes to get 5 miles out of the city centre.

Interesting thanks Dazzy appreciated, NCP wanted me to sign up before seeing the costs

, just mulling over a possible move with work. Have done a commute like it many moons ago (albeit from further out) and it was certainly painful, what's the commute these days like from say Didsbury or Prestwich 40 - 50 minutes at 8ish?

MonsterMoshi · 23 Jul 2018 at 20:23

Can’t tell you from a work commuting experience but as a student, getting the bus from Fallowfield could take anywhere from 25 minutes to 2 hours depending on the roadworks at the time.
Now though, general traffic from the south is diverted up Birchfields road and into the city center on Princess Street which can become chaos.
Enjoy it. I chose to pay more and live in the city center. Commuting into the city becomes hell because of the unreliability of it if you aren’t on public transport.

I would say that if you want to live in the nicer suburbs, Sale is a good place to be as the public transport is pretty good on the tram

ultralaser · 23 Jul 2018 at 20:33

MonsterMoshi said:
Can’t tell you from a work commuting experience but as a student, getting the bus from Fallowfield could take anywhere from 25 minutes to 2 hours depending on the roadworks at the time.
Now though, general traffic from the south is diverted up Birchfields road and into the city center on Princess Street which can become chaos.
Enjoy it. I chose to pay more and live in the city center. Commuting into the city becomes hell because of the unreliability of it if you aren’t on public transport.

I would say that if you want to live in the nicer suburbs, Sale is a good place to be as the public transport is pretty good on the tram

Yeah I had a brief look at Sale and Altrincham. The problem with the Metrolink is that it's actually quite expensive, I mean £5.80/£6.60 to get into the center from Sale/Altrincham which isn't cheap.

MonsterMoshi · 23 Jul 2018 at 20:39

ultralaser said:
Yeah I had a brief look at Sale and Altrincham. The problem with the Metrolink is that it's actually quite expensive, I mean £5.80/£6.60 to get into the center from Sale/Altrincham which isn't cheap.

Between Sale and the City center you are looking at £77 per month on a 28 day pass so roughly £3.85 per day assuming 20 working days

Dazzy · 23 Jul 2018 at 20:44

ultralaser said:
Interesting thanks Dazzy appreciated, NCP wanted me to sign up before seeing the costs , just mulling over a possible move with work. Have done a commute like it many moons ago (albeit from further out) and it was certainly painful, what's the commute these days like from say Didsbury or Prestwich 40 - 50 minutes at 8ish?

You can see the NCP prices before you sign up - click through as if you are about to buy on the site and then you can search by location under the new customer registration without actually registering.

Exact commuting times depends on where you choose to park in the city centre and where you leave from in Didsbury as small 1/4 mile changes can make a massive difference. Google maps is pretty accurate if you set the journey date to September (when the schools are back in) and choose the time you would be leaving. It will give you a range of times and 99% of the time it would be the higher estimate.

Seriously though if you are commuting at 8am by car into Manchester you will need A LOT of patience. If you work a standard 9-5 the commute will be awful (both on the train or in the car). The smarter solution is to start/leave early, or live near one of the less congested train lines (the Manchester Airport line is miles better than the stockport trains).

ultralaser · 23 Jul 2018 at 21:00

Dazzy said:
You can see the NCP prices before you sign up - click through as if you are about to buy on the site and then you can search by location under the new customer registration without actually registering.

Exact commuting times depends on where you choose to park in the city centre and where you leave from in Didsbury as small 1/4 mile changes can make a massive difference. Google maps is pretty accurate if you set the journey date to September (when the schools are back in) and choose the time you would be leaving. It will give you a range of times and 99% of the time it would be the higher estimate.

Seriously though if you are commuting at 8am by car into Manchester you will need A LOT of patience. If you work a standard 9-5 the commute will be awful (both on the train or in the car). The smarter solution is to start/leave early, or live near one of the less congested train lines (the Manchester Airport line is miles better than the stockport trains).

Once again really appreciate the advice Dazzy

Will take it into consideration