Manchester Piccadilly station

## Manchester Piccadilly

**Manchester Piccadilly** is the principal railway station in Manchester, England. Opened as **Store Street** in 1842, it was renamed **Manchester London Road** in 1847 and Manchester Piccadilly in 1960. Located to the south-eastern side of Manchester city centre, it hosts intercity and cross-country services to national destinations including London Euston, Birmingham, Bristol, Southampton, Wales and Scotland, and local and regional services to destinations in Northern England including Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle and York. It is one of 19 major stations managed by Network Rail.

The station has twelve terminal platforms in the train shed and two through platforms to the south of it. Piccadilly is also a major interchange with the Metrolink light rail system with two tram platforms in its undercroft.

Piccadilly is the busiest station in the Manchester station group with more than 25 million passenger entries and exits between April 2015 and March 2016, (the other major stations in Manchester are Oxford Road and Victoria). It is the fourth busiest station in the United Kingdom outside London. The station hosts services from six train operating companies. It is the second busiest interchange station outside London, with almost 3.8 million passengers changing trains there annually.

Refurbishment took five years and cost £100m in 2002, it was the most expensive improvement on the UK rail network at the time. According to an independent poll carried out in 2007, Manchester Piccadilly had the highest customer satisfaction level of any UK station, with 92% of passengers satisfied compared with the national average of 60%.

A Transport and Works Act application to build two extra platforms was made in October 2016 and construction is expected to commence after the completion of the Ordsall Chord in January 2018. High Speed 2 proposals would require five more platforms and reconfiguration of the Metrolink station.

## Architecture

The listed train shed roof which is 105 metres wide between platforms 1 and 12, has four spans, two spans 185 metres in length over the eastern part of the station date from the 1860s while the other two at the western side measuring 150 metres long were built in the early 1880s. The roof is supported by masonry walls with round-headed windows alongside platforms 1 and 12 and rows of cast iron columns. The roof spans have wrought iron trusses with cast iron struts on girders between the columns. The original roof was covered with slates with some glazing. The slates were subsequently replaced with boarded felt. Between 1997 and 1999 the roof was refurbished and 10,000 panes of toughened glass 'float' above the wrought iron trusses.

Below the train shed is an area once used as a goods station. Its cast iron columns and brick arches support the non-through platforms above. The area is now used by the Metrolink station, its tracks and sidings, as well as car parking. The columns were encased in concrete for protection against collision.

George W. Buck designed the original skew arch bridge over Fairfield Street with ten cast iron arch ribs as part of a long brick arch viaduct topped with open stonework parapets. The bridge was widened by adding wrought iron plate girders and transverse girders, supporting longitudinal joists with iron arch plates. As part of reconstruction in the 1960s the cast iron arches and spandrels were encased in concrete. Platforms 13 and 14 are situated on the bridge.

The main entrance leads to a concourse with ground floor and mezzanine levels. The Fairfield Street entrance leads to the Metrolink station in the undercroft and is linked to the rail platforms by escalators. Redevelopment between 1997 and 2002 revised the station layout. A glass partition wall separates the concourse from the platforms.

## Facilities

The Fairfield Street entrance, at basement level, serves the car park, the taxi rank, and the Metrolink station. Above it at track level is a concourse into which the main entrance feeds, housing ticket offices, information points, seating, timetables, toilets, shops, and food and drink outlets. Above the concourse is a second level of food outlets and bars, and the Virgin Trains First Class Lounge. On the main concourse, glass doors within a large glass partition lead to platforms 1 to 12. A travelator leads to the upper concourse linked by a footbridge, steps and lift to platforms 13 and 14. The island lounge contains retail outlets, toilets and a departure lounge. There are vending machines, waiting areas and snack bars on platforms 13 and 14.

Manchester Piccadilly is accessible for disabled people and has escalators and lifts to all levels, wide-access doors and gates, braille signs, hearing loops and disabled toilet facilities.

Cycle racks are available on Fairfield Street and the long-stay car park and next to the tower block at the station front. In March 2010, Manchester City Council and Network Rail unveiled plans for a 'Cycle Centre' to provide secure facilities, with maintenance and hire services.

The station has a taxi rank, drop-off/pick-up point, and short- and long-stay car parks accessible from Fairfield Street. The long-stay multi-storey car park is at the rear of the station.

Ticket barriers were installed in Autumn 2016 between platforms 3 and 7, following an application by Virgin Trains.

## Layout

Platform 1 is at the north end of the station and the through platforms 13 and 14 are at the south end. Of the terminus platforms, 1-9 are full length platforms, 10-12 are shorter than the others and can only accommodate local trains, platform 12 is the shortest and can only accommodate three coaches. The main entrance and concourse are to the front of the terminal platforms and the taxi and car drop-off entrance is on the southern side on Fairfield Street. The Metrolink tram line passes under the station through the undercroft. Its platforms are under the concourse and railway platforms. To the south of Piccadilly on the opposite side of Fairfield Street is the derelict Manchester Mayfield station which closed for railway use in 1986.

## National rail services

The station has 12 terminus platforms for services terminating from locations to the south of Manchester, and two through platforms, 13 and 14. The platforms are split into A and B sections to allow more than one train to stand. The through platforms 13 and 14 are used by through services via Manchester Oxford Road to North Wales, Liverpool, North West England, Glasgow and Edinburgh, and through services from Manchester Airport.

Manchester Piccadilly is currently served by six train operating companies:

**Northern**

* Local train services to stations in the Manchester area, primarily to destinations south and east of the city in Cheshire or Derbyshire and beyond. These include Hadfield, Glossop, Marple, Rose Hill Marple, New Mills Central, Sheffield via New Mills Central, Hazel Grove, Buxton, Crewe via Stockport or Manchester Airport, Stoke-on-Trent via Macclesfield, and Chester via Altrincham and Northwich.
* Services operate to the north and west to Liverpool Lime Street via St Helens Junction, Preston via Bolton and Southport via Wigan. Since 1 April 2016, Northern also operate the hourly service between Manchester Airport and Blackpool North that was formerly run by TransPennine Express (along with a small number of through trains to Barrow-in-Furness and Windermere via Lancaster).

These are operated by a variety of trains of Class 142 Pacers, Class 150 or Class 156 DMUs or Class 323 and Class 319 electric units.

**CrossCountry**

* Hourly services to Bournemouth call at Stockport, Macclesfield, Stoke-on-Trent, Stafford, Wolverhampton, Birmingham New Street, Birmingham International, Coventry, Leamington Spa, Banbury, Oxford, Reading, Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton Airport Parkway, Southampton Central, and Brockenhurst.
* Hourly services to Bristol Temple Meads call at Stockport, Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton, Birmingham New Street, Cheltenham Spa, and Bristol Parkway. Some services continue to Exeter St Davids, Plymouth or Paignton.

All CrossCountry services are operated by Class 220 *Voyager* and Class 221 *Super Voyager* units.

**East Midlands Trains**

* Hourly service from Liverpool Lime Street via Piccadilly to Sheffield and Nottingham, with most trains continuing to Norwich. These services are operated by Class 158 *Express Sprinter* units.

**TransPennine Express** operate services on three routes.

* The North TransPennine route has quarter-hourly services to Leeds via Huddersfield, with one train per hour continuing to Newcastle, Hull, Middlesbrough or Scarborough. In the opposite direction, one train per hour continues to Liverpool Lime Street and two to Manchester Airport. A two-hourly service to Leeds and York operates after midnight, providing a 24-hour service.
* The South TransPennine route runs from Manchester Airport via Piccadilly to Sheffield and Cleethorpes, operating hourly.
* The TransPennine North West route has an hourly service to Edinburgh Waverley or Glasgow Central (alternating) via Wigan North Western. In the opposite direction, this continues to Manchester Airport. These services to/from Scotland now operate along the newly electrified route over Chat Moss and Wigan North Western, though at least some will revert to their former route via Bolton when that route is electrified in 2017/18.

Class 185 *Desiro* units operate most TransPennine Express services, with the exception of the Scottish services which are operated by Class 350 *Desiro* units. The Class 185s were supplemented on the Hull and Cleethorpes services by Class 170 *Turbostar* units until February 2016 (these have now been transferred to Chiltern Railways). A number of services on these routes to/from Manchester Airport start or end here.

**Virgin Trains**

* Three trains per hour to London Euston, two via Stoke-on-Trent and one via Crewe as part of the InterCity West Coast franchise, operated with Class 390 *Pendolino* units.

**Transport for Wales**

* Hourly services via Chester and the North Wales Coast Line to Llandudno, calling at Manchester Oxford Road, Newton-le-Willows, Earlestown, Warrington Bank Quay, Runcorn East, Frodsham, Helsby, Chester, Shotton, Flint, Prestatyn, Rhyl, Abergele & Pensarn, Colwyn Bay, Llandudno Junction and Deganwy. Two trains per day run to Holyhead on weekdays only and some evening terminate at Chester. Certain services to/from North Wales have been extended to Manchester Airport since the May 2016 timetable change.
* Hourly services operate via Crewe, Shrewsbury and the Welsh Marches Line to Cardiff Central, with services continuing to Carmarthen or Milford Haven. There are once daily services to Tenby & Pembroke Dock and to Fishguard Harbour.

All services (except for the 10:30 departure) are booked for a Class 175 *Coradia* unit. Class 158 *Express Sprinter* and occasionally Class 150 *Sprinter* units when 175s are not available. Two services are operated by Mark 3 carriages hauled by a Class 67.

## External links

Template:Greater Manchester railway stations
Template:Greater Manchester Metrolink stations