Station parking - Baldock or Biggleswade

[Voguely]

Hi all,

Currently looking at houses in a few different areas. Some of them relatively close to Baldock station and to Biggleswade.

I need to commute into London and was wondering if anyone on here used either of those stations, and if so what parking was like on a normal weekday? (Obviously right now probably pretty quiet during lockdown, but assuming rail usage goes back to something like pre-covid levels at some point in the future)

Thanks!

[itcaptainslow]

Baldock is usually full by about 9am most weekday mornings. No idea about Biggleswade.

[offspring86]

I can’t comment on the station car park in Baldock, but I do live a 2 minute walk away. All of the roads in the area seem to be free to park all day except between 11am and midday, I would assume this is to prevent people dumping their cars on local roads while they take the train into the city for the day.

[donkmeister]

I'd say one of the benefits of Biggleswade is that there are a lot of nice houses within 10 minutes walk of the station and even the new estate is mostly within 20 minutes so the parking issue becomes non-existant if you appreciate a stroll. Baldock is a nice town but depending on your budget the choice of housing may be more limited.
My OH sometimes parks at Biggleswade to get the train into London. The station car park usually has plenty of room about 6:30 (no idea about later). I believe you can park at the Rose Lane car park (5 minutes walk from station) for a modest fee but check that before deciding on anything! I can see parking restrictions coming on all the residential roads nearby as there has been a sharp increase in inconsiderate parking by commuters since they built the new estate.

[donkmeister]

offspring86 said:

I can’t comment on the station car park in Baldock, but I do live a 2 minute walk away. All of the roads in the area seem to be free to park all day except between 11am and midday, I would assume this is to prevent people dumping their cars on local roads while they take the train into the city for the day.

They did the same in Biggleswade, and I think the area of these restrictions will be increased.

[Voguely]

donkmeister said:

I'd say one of the benefits of Biggleswade is that there are a lot of nice houses within 10 minutes walk of the station and even the new estate is mostly within 20 minutes so the parking issue becomes non-existant if you appreciate a stroll. Baldock is a nice town but depending on your budget the choice of housing may be more limited.
My OH sometimes parks at Biggleswade to get the train into London. The station car park usually has plenty of room about 6:30 (no idea about later). I believe you can park at the Rose Lane car park (5 minutes walk from station) for a modest fee but check that before deciding on anything! I can see parking restrictions coming on all the residential roads nearby as there has been a sharp increase in inconsiderate parking by commuters since they built the new estate.

Thanks, good to know. I wasn't actually looking at living in either town, probably more likely some of the villages within a few miles such as Ashwell or Ickwell where there are some nice houses with decent size gardens etc. I'm happy to pay for starion parking, it's more whether you can actually get a space or not. Looking at Baldock, it appears the station car park is pretty tiny, so I imagine that fills up pretty early?

[donkmeister]

Ashwell is nice, the station is in the middle of nowhere though and when I've driven past the station I didn't see an obvious big car park... You might want to suss that one out in person!

[itcaptainslow]

I work on the railway-you’re more likely to get a space at Ashwell. The service isn’t quite as good as Baldock (one semi fast train per hour into London generally rather than two, plus additional peak services that start/terminate at Baldock).

As I say generally Baldock is full Mon-Thurs by around 9am.

Hitchin has a bigger car park (but generally fills up quickly) but has a better choice of trains as this is where the Cambridge branch joins the East Coast Mainline.

Edited by itcaptainslow on Tuesday 18th August 15:08