So what’s new for Greater Manchester in today’s announcement for railway investment? After all, we’ve already seen the proposals for the Northern Hub and the Ordsall Curve. We have “options” for two new through platforms at Manchester Piccadilly, capacity improvements on the Castlefield corridor, a fourth platform at Manchester Airport and turnback facilities at Rochdale. That’s in addition to the already-announced Ordsall Curve and electrification to Liverpool, Preston and York: projects which have been lumped together with all the other projects nationwide to make the headline sum of £9 billion.
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I suppose we will all just have to wait until nearer to the time, when matters will have assumed a more definitive planning structure. I am quite interested in the Rochdale scenario, as this station is only a mere shadow of what it used to be.
Where would they fit 2 new through platforms at Piccadilly? There’s not a whole lot of room around Piccadilly to add another 2 lines, and even if they were to find the land to build these platforms, how would they get the lines down to Oxford Road? There is no room at all anywhere between the two stations. In theory, the existing viaduct could be widened most/all of the way, but I dread to think what the cost & distruption would be…
Platforms 15 and 16 would perhaps use the site of the old Mayfield station near the Star & Garter pub. The plan appears to be to leave the viaduct as two tracks, as the capacity constraint is when trains make a station stop, and there would be 2 platforms in each direction at both ends. This allows two trains to stop at the same time, or rather one can be departing as the next train arrives at the adjacent platform.
I had heard comment that the new through platforms 15 and 16 being built adjacent to platforms 13 and 14 over Fairfield Street on a similar type of supporting structure as those two existing platforms are supported upon.
The Piccadilly extension will certainly be welcomed, as it will reduce the bottle-necking between Piccadilly and Oxford Road, which will particularly be needed once the Ordsall Chord opens in a couple of years time with more services to Victoria (with its new roof).
Faster journeys times will also be a boost as well plus once lines across Manchester and the north are electrified, we’ll get better trains.
Very good news for Manchester
A couple of years ? Ha ! We’ll see, wont be holding my breath !