Great Western Coffee Shop

I've sometimes been waiting at railway stations where there are unused buildings or platforms and wondered about what beneficial and ideally income generating use they could have some potential for...... especially in these days of the industry's need for revenue growth.
The article below about Lancaster Station caught my attention.  The disused platform 6 along with the rest of the station are listed buildings and there's currently an application to resuse the platform and the structures on it as a restaurant.
The idea isn't new, off course, my local station building houses a long standing upholstery business but there are many other examples that I've noticed of disuse or under use.of existing station infrastructure. 
Perhaps Lancaster Station might herald a trend to be more imaginative in finding profitable use for existing station infrastructure.... ideally something that makes them more attractive to railway passengers.
Anyway, here's the link to the Lancaster Guardian article:


https://www.lancasterguardian.co.uk/news/people/fascinating-plans-unveiled-to-reopen-abandoned-platform-at-lancaster-station-as-a-restaurant-4340970

It’s often made more awkward by barriers at stations.  Lancaster’s old platform is self contained and separate, but many buildings only have access onto the platforms, or would need to restrict access to the platforms which might affect trade.

Some station buffets are now split in half like Darlington and Stoke to get round that problem.

There’s also the poor condition of many of these structures, as well as sky high rental charges from Network Rail.

There’s scope at certain places for it to happen though.  Reading’s Three Guineas is a good local example.  No access to/from the platforms any more, but that doesn’t matter as the entrance is in the busy station forecourt.

Agreed, although perhaps a little enlightened self interest from Network Rail by reducing prohibitive rentals would bring in some revenue where there was previously none.  Likewise, favourable terms could be offered to encourage new tenants to take on and make repairs to buildings in such need.  At the very least that would reduce NR's costs and certainly give the impression of a better run station.

That building at Lancaster - off to one side as I recall - looks (from my armchair) as being a potential for re-use.   This is far from a new concept - from Redland to Saltash and with so many old railway stations now being homes.  Community Rail is very strong on this too, and where a new use has a symbiotic relationship with railway business, so much the better.   There may be other opportunities coming up at stations where a ticket office is no longer required - dangerous territory to even speculate on with individual cases!

Being close to an operational railway causes issues, some of which have been mentioned already.  For building and rooms near to platform tracks, you have various issues like people outside / privacy and the noise of trains.  In one extreme case I can think of, diesel multiple units terminating can lead to prolonged noise and mucky air, whereas in the day that the station was built trains were locomotive and coaches, with the locomotives making the noise only at the outer reaches of the platform.  Lancaster has a missing track at "platform 6" but I there is still a track at platform 5 - don't think that's much of a diesel tickover issue for passenger trains as they tend to terminate in platforms 1 and 2?

There must be numerous stations where their buildings are now used for completely different uses despite the station still being in use. I can think of several examples just in Bristol, such as Montpelier and Sea Mills, where what was the station building is now a separate workplace. It would be interesting to know what the total number of these is across the country.

I expect it's very common and in large stations too, such as the bike shop in Bath Spa and the offices in the old shed at Bristol Temple Meads.

Then there's disused platforms too.  I've sometimes wondered if there's a potential for public art space there.  Take my local Severn Beach line with it's unused platforms at a number of stations, Redland and Montpelier for example.  There's currently no tracks alongside these platforms and no public access.  All that's on them is encroaching under growth which could be cleared to make space for...let's say a showplace for local sculptors or other artists.
I know it's not a new concept, there's been similar on, for example, disused London Underground station platforms but I'm certain this sort of thing would have an appeal well beyond the capital.

When I lived in Bristol my local station was Stapleton Road. A couple of years before I moved away, a community run garden centre was set up on what was then the space where the third and fourth tracks had been. With plans for the four-tracking along that section, permission was given on a temporary basis for it to operate until it was needed to restore the four tracks.

I thought that was quite far-sighted, making use of railway infrastructure where there were plans for future development. I'm not certain what happened to the garden centre when it was moved, though I think they may have operated temporarily on part of the 'car park' at the station, which isn't actually available for cars to use as the access road to it isn't suitable for traffic movements on the main road, and I think is used just by rail operators for access.

Tynemouth on the Tyne Wear Metro is a good example, it has a fairly large and popular weekly market in what is a relatively huge covered concourse, with only a small fraction of the space used by the Metro platforms and paid area.

There's also a community garden in what looks like it probably used to be a station building on northbound platform of Ashchurch.

One very obvious use (to me) for disused platforms and track is to use them for feed-in bus services to terminate at. Obviously some issues to deal with such as dividing up the disused side of platforms from the live side (if that is the case), providing barriers to enter the station (if that is applicable) and having space for one bus to pass another, but there are certainly places where it could be done and would be very useful, but just needs the will on all sides to do it, including prospective bus companies.

It annoys me when the most convenient and accessible space to most stations is used to park cars rather than for another form of public transport.

It would be wonderful if Network Rail were to reopen all the unused platforms it has around the UK!
That's the simplistic view of course. Far too expensive