Creative ideas to turn train stations into social hubs

‘Here at Kents Bank in Cumbria we’re developing a railway library in the station building and next door there’s an excellent art gallery.’ Photograph: Paul Salveson

There is a crying need, as you argue in your editorial, for much more creative thinking about how to develop our stations as “social hubs” in the wake of the government’s climbdown over ticket office closures (The Guardian view on England’s train stations: make them part of a rail renaissance, 5 November).

Here at Kents Bank in Cumbria, we’re developing a railway library in the station building, and next door there’s an excellent art gallery in the former gents’ toilets.

At Gobowen (Shropshire) and Millom (Cumbria), social enterprises sell rail tickets and offer other services. These initiatives are very location-specific, and what was missing in the original proposal to close hundreds of ticket offices, and the subsequent climbdown, was any attempt to encourage local enterprise and creativity to make better use of these precious assets.

The railway industry needs to get together with local community and business groups, unions and councils to get more out of our stations to ensure their long-term survival and development.
Prof Paul Salveson
Rail Reform Group