Manchester Piccadilly reopens after £7.9m upgrade

2 hours ago

Richard SteadNorth West

News image — Station Manager Simon Bennett says it was a "weird environment" in Manchester Piccadilly when it was closed

BBC Photograph of Simon Bennett, the station manager at Manchester Piccadilly Station. The image shows the departure board and the platforms in the background. — Station Manager Simon Bennett says it was a "weird environment" in Manchester Piccadilly when it was closed

Tens of thousands of people have begun commuting into Manchester Piccadilly again after the station reopened following a "once in a generation" upgrade.

Work took place over nine days to replace the tracks, the points and the signalling systems in the Ardwick area.

Simon Bennett, station manager, said: "We had hundreds of people working on the tracks 24/7 and the trains are now running fantastic because we've now got some really reliable infrastructure out there."

"When the station was closed last week, it was a very weird environment for our passengers and staff," he added.

Photograph of commuters at the entrance to Manchester Piccadilly Station. The image shows people moving in and out of the main entrance. — Almost 9,000 rail replacement bus services ran over nine days when Manchester Piccadilly was closed

Network Rail said engineers replaced eleven sets of points, 5.5 miles (8.8 km) of cabling, 4,000 timber railway sleepers and 5,500 tonnes of ballast during the nine-day closure.

Over that time, there were almost 9,000 rail replacement bus services running.

The newly installed railway infrastructure updated tracks and signalling equipment which was last replaced in the late 1980s.

Brian Paynter from Network Rail said: "Upgrading the track over six lines in what's known as the Piccadilly corridor will make journeys more reliable and the points and signalling systems less prone to faults".

Network Rail Photograph of workers on the railway tracks close to Manchester Piccadilly Station. The image shows people in orange suits and white hats. — Follow-up work will take place in March

Platforms 1-12 were completely closed to all passenger trains during the upgrade work, but some services did stop at platforms 13 and 14.

Last year, passengers made more than 38 million journeys in and out of Manchester Piccadilly, and nearly 1,000 passenger and freight trains pass through the Piccadilly corridor every day, Network Rail said.

Photograph of the concourse at Manchester Piccadilly Station. The image shows the departure board and passengers making their way to the platforms. — An average of about 130,000 passengers use Manchester Piccadilly Station every day

On Sunday 1 March and on Sunday 22 March, routine follow-up work will take place to secure the new railway foundation stone.

This will impact trains into Manchester Piccadilly until lunchtime on each day.

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