a fire damaged some of the station buildings. Part of the main goods yard was formerly a Royal Mail sorting office. The remainder is a car park for station users. A short siding from the down line to the west of platforms 2 and 3 is a remnant of tracks into the yard. The site of the up goods yard is now a car park. Layout The station is to the east of the River Medway but it is clear from a map of the town that it is actually located at the northern end of Maidstone. The approach from the west is via a high level truss bridge over the river, and a later girder bridge over the A229. Immediately east of the station is the portal to the Week Street tunnel. The booking office, open for most of the operational day, is located at street level on Station Road, above the tunnel portal, with other offices on up platform 1 as well as a coffee shop. There are also offices on Platform 2. The station has three platforms: 1 and 2 are through platforms capable of handling trains of up to 8 cars. Platform three is a bay platform on the north (down line) side. Ramps lead down to the platforms on each side. A disused face to platform 1 shows the alignment of a former bay platform. A third track runs as a passing track through the station between the up and down lines. A pedestrian walkway on the railway bridge provides a route to the Medway Valley Line's Maidstone Barracks station on the west of the river. Maidstone's third station, Maidstone West, is south of Maidstone Barracks. Development There have been plans to redevelop the station for a number of years. In 2005 Network Rail announced that they were in talks with the John Lewis Partnership who intended to build a large Waitrose supermarket on the site. However, in November of that year, the developer that had been working on the deal pulled out taking John Lewis with them. The following year a new redevelopment in conjunction with supermarket chain Asda was proposed. This development included a store, hotel, 100 homes and parking for 515 cars. In 2007 it was reported that Asda were getting cold feet over the plans, although Asda stressed that talks were still ongoing, but in 2009 it was confirmed that Asda