Part of Perth railway station could be upgraded to benefit first class commuters travelling between London and the north of Scotland.
Serco Caledonian Sleeper, which runs overnight services from London to Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William, has applied for permission to radically transform a semi-disused A-listed building at platform four of the Fair City station.
The building will provide a first class lounge, as well as a training room and auditorium.
Glasgow-based IDP Architects have been appointed to draw up designs for the rundown property and an application for listed building consent has been submitted to Perth and Kinross Council.
The proposal is separate to the local authority’s long-standing bid to create a new “integrated transport hub”, a new complex which would merge the train station and the nearby bus station to offer a one-stop location for public transport.
Such is the deterioration of the bus station that it has been likened to a 1950s eastern European housing estate.
The council has been urged to progress plans on the transport hub as part of its bid for UK City of Culture status in 2021.
In papers lodged with the council, IDP Architects said work on the platform four building would feature a series of internal alterations.
A spokesman said: “The proposed works are to provide facilities for first class passengers using Caledonian Sleeper services and Caledonian Sleeper staff accommodation.
“The scope of the project includes the provision of new first class lounge, wet rooms, meeting rooms, a training room, auditorium, prep area and mock-up room.
“The proposed location of the works is currently vacant and in a state of disrepair. The proposal will reinstate many original features and bring a large unused area of the A-listed building back into use.”
The ground floor of the building is currently used as offices for Network Rail staff. The rooms on the first floor are empty.
The site is owned by Network Rail.
Two years ago, the Leonard Street train station came in for criticism after a footbridge installed as part of a £3.8 million upgrade was nominated for a Carbuncle Award.
The structure was shortlisted in the pock-mark category, which recognises the worst of planning decisions.
The station dates back to the mid-19th Century and plays a key role in the Perth City Plan, an adopted masterplan of proposed improvements to be rolled out across the city over the next 20 years.
The station was used as a backdrop in the 2013 film The Railway Man, starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman.
