Rail companies were accused of “daylight robbery” after it emerged yesterday that some passengers were being charged more than £200 a day for parking.
Figures show that train operators made almost £800 million from non-railway charges such as parking and catering last year, an increase of more than 4 per cent.
Some station car parks charge £215 for a 12-hour stay. The most expensive annual parking ticket stands at more than £3,000.
The figures, from the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, came as the government appealed for more people to cycle to stations, with £15 million being spent to upgrade bicyle parks at 279 stations.
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Robert Goodwill, the transport minister, said the move would help to “integrate cycling into longer journeys”.
The TSSA said that more drastic action was needed to make rail travel affordable, including stricter regulation of parking charges. Prices should come under the same curbs used to cap train tickets, the association said.
Edmund King, president of the AA, said: “Station car parks face a difficult balancing act in not setting parking charges that are lower than those in neighbouring car parks, encouraging non-rail users to take spaces intended for train travellers.
“Unfortunately, this becomes an excuse for much higher parking charges, although longer-stay car parking does demand a higher and more costly level of security.
“The root of the problem is the high cost of train travel — high parking charges at stations rub more salt in the wound. If we want to encourage drivers to allow the train to take the strain then it is imperative that railway car park charges are kept down.”
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TSSA research found that the most expensive station car parks were at Birmingham New Street, Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Piccadilly and Leeds. It also showed that the most expensive annual parking tickets were at Birmingham Snow Hill (£3,003), Reading (£1,805), Guildford (£1,800) and Cambridge (£1,596).
The figures were dismissed by industry officials as misleading because, they said, the TSSA was quoting only the most expensive charges. It was also pointed out that Birmingham Snow Hill station is actually run by the local council – not train operators.
The Rail Delivery Group, which represents operators and Network Rail, insisted that parking at many stations was free or in line with costs at nearby car parks. Network Rail runs the 18 biggest stations; the remainder are managed by individual train operators.
Data from the Office of Rail Regulation show that train companies collected £772 million in non-ticket income last year, £33 million more than in the previous year.
Manuel Cortes, TSSA general secretary, said that the charges were “little short of daylight robbery”.
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“Ministers may have limited fare rises this year but passengers have still got both barrels with big hikes in parking on top of these ceaseless rises in annual fares,” he said.
“These firms now simply regard stations as local profit centres, with passengers as captive cash cows.”
Rail officials denied companies were “profiteering” from the issue, with total train operator profits standing at £250 million in 2012/13, down from £270 million in the mid-90s.
Over the same period, money paid by operators to the government to reinvest in more services increased by 400 per cent from £390m to £1.96bn, they added.