Future
Network Rail's 'Northern Hub' plans costing over £560 million, aim to improve the heavily congested rail network around Manchester. Two new platforms would be constructed at Piccadilly and the station linked to Manchester Victoria via the Ordsall Chord cutting journey times on Trans-Pennine routes. The Ordsall Chord will make it possible for trains from the airport to travel via Piccadilly's platforms 13 and 14 and Oxford Road to Manchester Victoria and Leeds and via the Calder Valley line to Bradford. Construction is expected to start in 2014, with completion in time for the December 2016 timetable revision.
Phase 2 aims to alleviate congestion at platforms 13 and 14 by constructing a parallel elevated island platform (platforms 15 and 16) to end crowding and allow the minimum time between trains to be decreased from four to three minutes, improving reliability. It will allow four more trains an hour to be timetabled to Oxford Road, including a second freight to Trafford Park. Approval for the platforms, at an estimated cost of £200 million, was announced in July 2012. Construction, to be completed in time for the December 2018 timetable revision, should begin in 2016,.
The proposals aim to simplify train operations at Manchester Piccadilly, creating close associations between pairs of lines leading out of the station and particular platforms, with few crossing moves. Through platforms 16 to 13 will be dedicated to services on the present 'slow' lines, to and from Manchester Airport and Hazel Grove; platforms 12 to 5 would be for services on the 'fast' lines, to and from Crewe and Stoke; and platforms 4 to 1 would be for services on the 'east' lines, to and from Marple, Glossop and Huddersfield.
Read more about this topic: Manchester Piccadilly Station
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