COMMUTERS say they are being priced out of working in the City because of 66 per cent hikes in parking costs at some railway stations.

Rail users at Billericay have seen the price of parking soar from £6 to £10 per day, while Leigh station parkers have also been hit hard.

London office workers like Jackie Alexander, 30, have been left fuming at the increases, set by rail operators c2c and National Express.

Jackie, of Noak Hill Road, Billericay, has to leave for work at 5.30am, so cannot get public transport to Billericay.

She said: “This is disgusting. There’s no other word for it. How can they justify this rise when we are in the middle of a recession?

“We’re already counting the cost of 25 per cent increases to some fares and now we have to contend with these ridiculous parking charges. I simply cannot afford £50 a week just to park my car.”

Her colleague Tom Seccombe, 24, also from Billericay, uses the 340-space car park each weekday.

He said: “They are holding us to ransom. People like me who live two miles from the station and have to get the first train in, have no other way of getting there.”

John Pritchard, of New Road, Hadleigh, has seen the cost of his annual parking ticket at Leigh Railway Station’s 500-space car park, in Belton Way, go up by 9 per cent, from £640 to £700.

He stormed: “There is no excuse for this. With a totally unreliable bus service and a need to get to work on time, alongside my daughter, there is not an easy alternative to getting to the station.

“If 500 cars park at Leigh each day that’s at least an extra £30,000 per annum in revenue for doing nothing. Nice business if you can get it.”

Both car parks are operated by NCP, which stressed it does not set the prices and only maintains the car park on the owner’s behalf.

National Express spokeswoman, Rebecca Richardson, said: “From January, car parking charges have been revised to reflect a new pricing structure, seeing some increases.

“Many off-peak and weekend car park charges have not been increased. We are continuing to invest in improvements at our car parks and feel the prices still represent good value for money.”