Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), the organisation behind the customer facing brand Network West Midlands as part of the West Midlands Combined Authority, provide a series of park and ride car parks at railway stations across their network. These sites serve as an important interchange between road and rail transport systems, encouraging commuters away from roads and on to trains. It is the ambition of Network West Midlands to develop and deliver intelligent and sustainable mobility solutions which support integrated travel across different transport modes. Recognising that incentivising individuals to change the way they plan journeys and travel across the network will be key to the future success of their region.

A key challenge was to overcome difficulties and frustrations faced by drivers searching for a vacant parking space at multiple busy train station car parks.

Drivers were arriving at park and ride car parks earlier and earlier in order to ensure they would find a space at their preferred car park. Large numbers of commuters with childcare commitments or shift workers would arrive to find every space already occupied leaving them high and dry

This hyper-congestion at peak times would lead to drivers heading to alternative car parks, parking on streets surrounding train stations with some choosing to drive directly to town and city centres adding to traffic congestion.

NWM were keen to alleviate congestion and tried unsuccessfully to find an off the shelf solution to solve their problem in 2017 they launched a funded competition in conjunction with Innovate UK inviting tech companies to provide an innovative technology based solution which would address the problematic situation. Accelogress won that competition and have been working successfully with TfWM ever since, with great results and positive feedback from users.

Accelogress introduced Save-a-Space, a bespoke cloud parking management platform, with a free to use end user app.

Drivers can browse real-time parking availability information, select the car park which best suits their journey, enter preferred length of stay and reserve their parking space in advance. The app also provides helpful information about each participating car park, such as opening times, accessibility, and images of the car park.

The Save-a-Space app automatically sends notifications reminding drivers of their bookings, together with helpful reminders of start and end times. The app also offers the option to select mobile navigation to the pre-booked parking space. A reminder notification is sent when reservations are about to expire and when bookings are complete. Users are also able to report any problems via the Save-a-Space app and will receive assistance from our customer support advisors.

Save-a-Space is a software-based solution, so set up is simple. We register allocated parking spaces directly onto our platform and install appropriate signage at each of the numbered spaces.

Save-a-Space is a software-based solution, so set up is simple. We register allocated parking spaces directly onto our platform and install appropriate signage at each of the numbered spaces.

Car park occupancy information is relayed instantly to parking operators and enforcement via the Save-a-Space management dashboard allowing improved parking management and more efficient and targeted enforcement.

In their mission to further improve customer services, Transport for West Midlands are hoping to incorporate reservation at EV Charge Points at selected park and ride railway stations across their region Reserve & Charge .