Major changes afoot at Oxford Road and Piccadilly

NETWORK Rail has produced an intriguing “fly-through” video showing the significant engineering work that will be carried out at Piccadilly and Oxford Road stations in Manchester as part of the Northern Hub project.

It shows how the viaduct that runs through central Manchester between the stations will be widened in Whitworth Street West and in part of the former UMIST campus.

This will allow for longer trains at Oxford Road and more capacity at Piccadilly where two new platforms will be built on a new section of viaduct close to the grade II-listed Star & Garter pub. This will run across Fairfield Street and close to the Macdonald Hotel before joining the existing track.

Network Rail said the changes will mean: 16 trains an hour running through the city, up from 12; longer trains with more seats; and capacity for faster services to overtake stopping trains.

A public consultation has just closed and a planning application for the work should be submitted before the end of the year. The intention is start construction in early 2016 and have trains running by the end of 2018.

The £600m Northern Hub project is expected to increase passenger capacity across the North by 44 million a year and create 20,000 jobs. Another major engineering project is the Ordsall Chord, a curved extension running from the Liverpool line in Castlefield to the Salford track that runs into Victoria. This will also help more trains run through the city centre by linking Piccadilly and Victoria.

Pictured right: A view of the Oxford Road platform extension looking west along Whitworth Street from The Ritz.