Preston Railway Station

Preston railway station is a mainline station with direct connections to many parts of the UK including London, Edinburgh, York, Glasgow and Manchester.
I use the station on average 2 to 3 times a week for both business and leisure and most of the time have no problems at all.
Preston station is a historic station that has recently been remodelled to a good standard-​previously the station as in a miserable state with leaks, peeling paint and disgusting toilets. The remodel has improved the station although due to the semi-​exposed design of the station it can be cold during the winter months. There are facilities available however to escape the cold including a café, WH Smiths, Upper Crust with seating shared by the station bar.
The toilets for some reason still seem to suffer from issues like broken taps and they could be cleaner-​there is no charge to use the toilets unlike some stations but they have recently been updated and still have problems so this needs to be sorted out.
The station is managed by Virgin Trains who do a great job just like they do with running an excellent service on the West Coast Mainline.
The ticket sales office has long opening hours form early morning to late evening and the staff there are friendly and professional with the exception of just 2 who need customer service training and fares/​ticketing rules training!
There are fast ticket machines located in the ticket sales area which accept cash and cards-​just be aware very long queues can occur at peak times-​particularly between 06:45 and 08:00 on weekdays. Allow at least 20 mins at these times before your trains scheduled departure time.
The food and drink outlets accept the Bite card which is free to apply for and offers good discounts on food and drink including beer!
The bar is OK for a quick beer if delayed or have some time to spare between trains offering lagers, cider, wines, spirits and bottled beers but no real ales-​the prices are quite expensive even if you use a Bite card so if you have at least 30 mins available would recommend The Old Vic pub just 3 mins walk from the station.
The Station pub is opposite the station side entrance if your time is more limited but would only recommend for lagers, ciders etc not real ales. Food recommendations would be to walk to the city centre.
The city centre is just 4 to 5 mins walk with the Fishergate Shopping Centre directly opposite the station.
There is no First Class lounge at Preston Station-​hopefully, as Preston is a mainline key station, Virgin Trains will introduce one soon.
Taxis are available outside the station but I recommend pre-​ordering Millers Taxis to avoid getting ripped of or waiting around.
There is a multi-​storey car park and this is a great parking option at weekends and Bank Holidays even if not using the station and only visiting Preston city centre as you can part for £2 all day!
Overall while I often have no choice than to use Preston station, like many other folk, I usually enjoy the experience and with a few improvements the station could improve on the already excellent standards!

I stopped here on my way back from Liverpol tonight. It’s a massive station, but really cold as it’s like a wind tunnel. Few wee shops and more in here.
Very clean and well looked after station. This is one of the main points, trains changing points. Just wear a jacket and gloves, as it’s freezing:(

Traveling by train in Engand reminds me of Harry Potter world. I would recommend that any traveler travel by train from Edinburgh to Preston to Cornwall!

I had the opportunity to travel via Preston recently. It’s a nice station with lovely amenities. We had about an hour to wait at the station after our friend/​travel companion dropped us off en route home and enjoyed the opportunity to step out of the cold and grab a bite to eat. There is an Upper Crust sandwich shop, a little pub, and a WH Smith in the central platform area. Large, CLEAN (and free) restrooms are available nearby as well. The station is easy to get to and has a nice, accessible entrance. Definitely a place I’d be happy to travel through again.

We had to change trains back to london here and wait for over an hour. The platform we arrived on has a coffee shop. We had just lugged our bags up the stairs and were going to go back down for a coffee while the other waited with the bags. We discovered instead the middle platforms 3 and 4 (no stairs down) there is what looks like a paper shop. following through to a coffee shop, then a bar which is really nice and elegant with seating etc. Following through to rows of seats for the weary and finally the bathrooms. What more could a person ask for ?? A nice surprise and it made for comfortable travel. From the front it is really hard to know what is inside though.