page_title: Manchester station group
section_title: Future
hierarchical_section_title: Manchester station group / Future
caption_attribution_description: English: Schematic maps showing rail improvements through Manchester as part of the Northern Hub scheme (including the Ordsall Chord, also known as the Castlefield Curve, marked in red)
context_page_description: The Manchester station group is a station group of four railway stations in Manchester city centre, England; this consists of Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Oxford Road, Manchester Victoria and Deansgate. The station group is printed on national railway tickets as MANCHESTER STNS. For commuters travelling from one of the 91 National Rail stations in Greater Manchester, the four stations are printed as MANCHESTER CTLZ which additionally permits the use of Metrolink tram services in Zone 1.
  The Manchester station group does not include Manchester Airport station, nor Salford Central railway station. Since the opening of the Ordsall Chord in 2017, there has been an increase of through as opposed to terminating services – for example, the TransPennine Express from Newcastle to Manchester Airport now calls at Victoria, Oxford Road and Piccadilly.
  Rail passengers may board or disembark at any one of these four stations. National visitors from outside Greater Manchester with MANCHESTER STNS as the destination are not permitted to use Metrolink in Zone 1, as it is a locally funded transport scheme and receives no national government subsidy.
context_section_description: Many journeys which call at Manchester stations slow down due to the populated nature of Greater Manchester and congested routes; Network Rail have described it as a 'bottleneck'. In 2010 the Manchester hub study was released with a series of proposals to decreasing journey times.
  The Ordsall Chord (also known as the Castlefield Curve) was opened in 2017, which now links all four of Manchester's main stations. Other proposals are yet to start construction. Two new through platforms will be built at Piccadilly and Victoria will be upgraded. The implementation of the Northern Hub proposals would reduce journey times to and from Liverpool by 15 minutes, Leeds by 15 minutes and Sheffield by 5.
caption: A map of the stations in the group and future improvements as part of the Northern Hub. Salford Central is not part of the Manchester station group.
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