Remaining in station for overnight connections

[sheff1]

Is Sheffield station closed at night? I have a memory of a sign directing people to a side door for the TPE airport train in the middle of the night, yet I thought the footbridge was a right of way to Park Hill flats.

It closes after the last train departs, then from about midnight there's security and EMT staff directing folk out the main entrance, as the side entrance past M&S to the taxi rank is closed.

Has that changed recently ? When arriving after midnight I have always found the entrance to the taxi rank open. Sometimes the 'main' entrance to Sheaf Sq/St has been open, sometimes not.

Regarding the right of way question, my understanding is that it is not .... there are various reasons why EMT have been refused permission to install barriers but these are not relevant to this thread.

 

[_toommm_]

Has that changed recently ? When arriving after midnight I have always found the entrance to the taxi rank open. Sometimes the 'main' entrance to Sheaf Sq/St has been open, sometimes not.

Regarding the right of way question, my understanding is that it is not .... there are various reasons why EMT have been refused permission to install barriers but these are not relevant to this thread.

Admittedly it's been a few months since I've been there that late, but they did always herd us away from the taxi rank exit, even if we had a taxi there or were going to get one.

 

[johntea]

McDonalds is actually until 02:00 on Friday and Saturday at Leeds station, a godsend compared to trying to use the Briggate one! (Although if you have an hour to kill as shown you may as well just wander to the Briggate one which is 24 hours and have a coffee or something!)

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The concourse of Manchester Piccadilly is open 24/7, but only the lower end. I was forced to do an all-nighter there as my last train was cancelled and they refused to provide transport or accommodation.

Surprisingly windy as they keep all the platform doors open...

There used to be (and may still be) a 24hr cafe on the approaches to the main entrance to Piccadilly. I'd quite happily nurse a pot of tea and a bacon sandwich in there for a couple of hours back in the day!

 

[greyman42]

York is open 24/7 for the Manchester Airport services. It also has no ticket barriers so full access to the platforms. It is not unusual to see passengers spending most of the night there waiting for early morning LNER services. I once spent most of the night on Darlington station waiting for a train to York, no one bothered me.

 

[sprunt]

Victoria's open 24 hours isn't it? I unexpectedly had to do a late night return trip from Croydon to North London a few years ago and just missed the train from Victoria on the return leg - there was no problem with me (or plenty of others) waiting in the station, and plenty of the food and drink places were open. I suppose with it being London, and therefore on the Oyster/contactless network pretty much everyone there will have a valid "ticket" for any train, so it would be hard to separate the genuine travellers from the people just hanging around.

 

[colchesterken]

Ohh how times have changed, when the Westerns were finishing I spent an overnight at Paddington looking for parcels and newspaper trains
I do not think anyone even new or cared that I was there

 

[JonathanH]

Victoria's open 24 hours isn't it? I unexpectedly had to do a late night return trip from Croydon to North London a few years ago and just missed the train from Victoria on the return leg - there was no problem with me (or plenty of others) waiting in the station, and plenty of the food and drink places were open. I suppose with it being London, and therefore on the Oyster/contactless network pretty much everyone there will have a valid "ticket" for any train, so it would be hard to separate the genuine travellers from the people just hanging around.

No

Firstly, overnight trains now only run from Victoria on Friday night / Saturday morning and Saturday night / Sunday morning.

Even when overnight trains do run at the weekend, passengers are only allowed in around 10 minutes before the trains depart. No waiting on the concourse. Passengers wait outside.

Overnight travellers to Gatwick now concentrated on the Thameslink route.

 

[30907]

Only last summer, I spent half the night at Cologne Hbf. between a Berlin ICE and a Brussels connection. It was busy all night and had 2 or 3 outlets open.

German stations are traditionally "open." In this case, the longest gap between trains at Cologne is 30 minutes around 0200 - and the "undercroft" is essentially a retail area with access to platforms (think New Street or St Pancras only more so), so that doesn't surprise me at all.