EV electric car charging facilities have been installed in three train station car parks, making electric charging more accessible for rail commuters.

APCOA Parking, which operates many train station car parks in conjunction with Network Rail, has installed nearly six hundred charging units across station car parks in the last few years.

The company has now installed EV charging stations in the station car parks for Chislehurst in Greater London and Droitwich Spa in Worcestershire in England, as well as the station car park in Llandudno in Conwy County Borough in Wales.

This news comes after EV chargers were installed in the Chippenham station car park in September.

Network Rail has stated that the goal is to install charging points in 10% of all parking spaces within the station car parks that they manage by 2024.

This amounts to around 779 charging points in total, and with nearly six hundred units already installed, Network Rail and APCOA are most of the way to achieving this goal.

In addition to the new charging points, Llandudno station also saw its electrical substation upgraded to allow for the higher volume of electricity that is required to power the ports.

The new charging stations are 22KW eBox Professional units, provided by one of the largest EV charging companies in Europe, Compleo. They will allow for electric car batteries to receive a full charge in three to four hours, making them ideal for commuters and leisure passengers who wish to park at their local train station for the day while taking the train to their final destinations.

As with all other EV charging stations within car parks operated by Network Rail, these new units will be provided with twenty-four hour customer service support care from APCOA, and a remote monitoring system to keep the ports functioning as intended.

Speaking of the new ports, Kim Challis, Regional Managing Director UK&I and Group ESG Director of APCOA, said:

“We are delighted to work closely with Network Rail and Compleo in order to deliver convenient, reliable charging and parking services to even more customers and demonstrate our ongoing commitment to sustainability.”

Hamish Kiernan, Network Rail’s Commercial Director for property added:

“EV provision is central to our sustainability strategy, and with consumers increasingly embracing electric vehicles it’s vital we can offer this service to passengers and local residents. We look forward to expanding the EV charging solution to 7 more key locations by the end of January 2024 to further enhance the customer experience.”