Here are the findings from a study:

Those findings mean:

1. During weekdays more than half of the car park spaces at the shopping centres around the city are vacant. In contrast at the same time existing P&R stations are always full.
2. During weekend and public holidays the existing P&R stations are always nearly empty but at the same time it was not easy to find a car park space in the shopping centres.

What can we do with this simple fact?

Leasing the car parks from the shopping centres’ owners around the stations for the purpose of Park & Ride instead of spending money and building it from scratch. 

What are the benefits and feasibility of doing so?

1. First of all the city council would only need spending very little to gain 20,000-30,000 car parking spaces citywide without the need of building it and then only pay little for leasing cost which should be well fully offset by other benefits gained;
2. This made it possible to have P&R stations citywide for existing train, bus and ferry stations.
3. To rail lines, because this made it possible to convert normal rail stations to P&R stations, we may be able to run some express trains which shall only stop at the stations where we are having large P&R stations. This will make the travel time even shorter for the majority of the train commuters and increase the train capacity by increasing the frequency of the trains due to less running time. We could do the same to bus routes for which we may be able to run more direct buses from P&R stations to CBD.
4. There will be no need or need very little number of feeding buses. Commuters will do it themselves.
5. The shopping centres’ owners could make some serious money by leasing the car parks to the council while those spaces were usually vacant anyway.
6. The commuters’ footprints starting from 3pm onwards will bring business to their shops every weekday. Some breakfast providers may also be benefited.
7. It would also be convenient for the commuters to bring some groceries home or having short wondering around the shops after work which in turn bringing the potential business to the shops.
8. In some cases, where the council has already had P&R stations, the council could lease their car park back to the shop owners during the weekend and public holidays if required.

With this win-win situation the chance of succeeding would be very high.

Proposed location and the capacities of New P&R stations (Click here for a Word friendly version)

Plus all remaining train stations along the train line not listed here. The grand total number shall also include the existing P&R stations such as Albany P&R station.