New parking system to facilitate commuters in Austria

St. Valentin, Austria, is the model for the project

The train station in St. Valentin, Austria, is getting a new parking system, as ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) announced earlier this week in a press release. The system operates without any barriers and is designed to make it easier for commuters. The investment from ÖBB for the Park & Ride (the name of the system) will be about half a billion euros.

As people park their cars at the station, a camera automatically captures the licence plate. When exiting, another camera records the same car when it is leaving the parking lot.

The public transportation ticket must then be checked at the exit. The machine then determines if you have parked legally. If you have a train ticket and it has been used, you are allowed to park.

A pilot project that will be further implemented across the country

The parking system at the St. Valentin Park & Ride facility ensures that only public users can park their vehicles. This technology is now being rolled out to other train stations in Austria after months of testing. "St. Valentin will thus serve as a model for future systems throughout the country," said the company representatives in the press release. 

Lower Austria's Mobility Councilor Ludwig Schleritzko commented on the new facility: “The availability of parking spaces is an important prerequisite for an attractive switch to public transport. However, especially in urban areas, we repeatedly notice overloading of Park & ​​Ride facilities, which is at the expense of commuters.

Because we want to make the Park & ​​Ride parking spaces available to commuters free of charge in the future, the state and ÖBB have now successfully tested this new system. This improves the general conditions for train drivers so that the way to work can not only be done in a climate-friendly way, but also with significantly less hassle."