Shed pounds with ease! (Park at Snaresbrook)

From Monday, 5 January, the price of parking at Snaresbrook and Wanstead station car parks is going up again, to £6 and £5 respectively, rising from £4.50 and £4.

It was in September 2010 that Wansteadium last reported on price hikes at these carparks, when they rose from £2.70. It means that in less than three years, Snaresbrook prices have risen by more than 100%.
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Different prices will apply in both car parks at weekends and on Bank Holidays. But during the week – even in the evening – the flat rate approach used means the full whack even if parking for only an hour. This means technically one could park more cheaply for an hour near Harrods (£3.60) than in the carpark near the Ironing Board.

A spokesman for TfL which sets the rates told the Wanstead Guardian that it was bringing them in line with local competitors. “This is the first increase in charges in more than two years and our charges remain below the market rate,” he said.

However, the rate at Grove Park car park, run by Redbridge Council, is 80p for the first hour, rising to £5 for longer than three hours.

The future of on-street parking in Wanstead is still undecided, with a number of roads currently in the middle of a 12-month trial of residents’ only parking in a bid to deter commuters. The price rises may, however, simply make it more worthwhile for commuters to walk further to pick up the Central Line, potentially spreading the parking into other Wanstead roads.

Stranded in Snaresbrook

Saturday night Central Line passengers were stranded outside Snaresbrook as snow brought the line to a standstill, forcing the train to be evacuated. The passengers had to walk along the tracks, according to tweeter @naomibridge and others.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/naomibridge/status/165936303530196992″]

Video of passengers leaving the train is here.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/VenusAhmed/status/165937001680486401″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/VenusAhmed/status/165939925248782336″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/Wideylives78/status/165929524326957058″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/Jeffcoate21/status/165936056691212288″]

New for Wansteadium: Live Tube info

From today, following a period of testing, Wansteadium is offering live Tube information for Snaresbrook and Wanstead stations. The list of trains, visible on the right, shows destinations and number of minutes from the station. It is drawn from feeds provided by TfL and so should in theory be as accurate as the departure boards on the platforms. Source information updates every minute, but you will need to refresh the page to get the updated times.

Wansteadium hopes the residents of Wanstead and Snaresbrook find this useful. Your comments are welcome, via the form below or directly at wansteadium[at]gmail.com.

(Thanks to TfL for being enlightened with its data, and to developer Akshay Raje.)