Train operator First Great Western has rolled out cashless parking to more than 60 station car parks across the South and West of England.

The innovative RingGo system allows customers to pay for their car parking via their mobile phone with parking sessions charged directly to their credit or debit cards.

RingGo works by allowing drivers to make a local phone call, giving the car park location number and their vehicle and payment details. There are no coins, no tickets and no queues. The initial call takes a couple of minutes, but all future calls are fast-tracked – the current record is 31 seconds! Business travellers need no longer clog their glove boxes with paper tickets as VAT receipts are available online. Parking attendants check valid RingGo number plates via handheld devices. RingGo charges the parking session to the caller’s payment card, plus an additional convenience fee of just 20p, even if the session lasts a whole week.

First Great Western's Commercial Director, Tom Stables, explains: "This initiative is part of First Great Western’s commitment to improving the customer's total journey experience and parking is an important part of that process.
"RingGo is already proving to be a great time saver for our customers as they can now make the call while walking from car to platform." Other benefits for RingGo parkers are the options of receiving a summary text message, being reminded by text ten minutes before a session runs out, and the ability to extend a parking session by phoning back from wherever they are.
Tom continues: "One innovative aspect of RingGo is that a parking session can be extended by making a simple phone call, from wherever you are. This is great when a meeting overruns or the party’s too good to leave! RingGo definitely heralds a new era in parking."
Stations offering RingGo cashless parking: Bath Spa Bristol Parkway Bristol Temple Meads Castle Cary Charlbury Cheltenham Spa Chippenham Evesham Kemble Keynsham Kingham Moreton in Marsh Romsey Stroud Swindon Trowbridge Warminster Westbury Yate, Bourne End Burnham Cholsey Crowthorne Didcot Parkway Goring & Streatley Hayes & Harlington Henley-on-Thames Langley Maidenhead Mortimer Newbury North Camp Pangbourne Pewsey Slough Taplow Thatcham Theale Tilehurst Twyford West Drayton, Barnstaple Dawlish Exeter Central Exeter St Davids Looe Newquay Newton Abbot Paignton Penzance Plymouth Redruth St Austell St Erth Taunton Teignmouth Tiverton Parkway Torquay Totnes Truro Yatton

First Great Western's station car parks are run by APCOA, the parking specialists. APCOA were tasked with finding innovative ways of offering rail travellers a better service. They chose RingGo.