To be fair to the woman trying to park as mentioned above, not being able to turn up and park after commuting time is a real problem nationally, and must put off a lot of people wanting to give their money to the railway. It has certainly put me off in the past. My local station had its surface-only car park replaced with a small multistorey a few years ago. Things were fine for a while, but when I walk past now - on several days a week - the car park is full and the gates closed by 10am. I imagine most stations on the WCML are the same, and it puts people off travelling by train at the very time - off-peak - when the railway promotes any spare capacity. There are no easy answers however, I admit. Had to laugh the other day, a woman drives up in a nice big brand new Merc - the gates clearly shut - I could see the expression of bewilderment on her face... she then reverses and attempts to drive into the barriered 'exit' lane, expecting to gain admission.
A few moments later a car drives up from within the car park, quite properly, in order to exit via the barrier that the Merc was now blocking. The woman in the Merc then froze and a 1960's Berlin Wall style eyeball-to-eyeball moment ensued. How some people get through life really is beyond me at times!