Piccadilly station expansion | Piccadilly
Tram Stop | City Zone
Thread: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=495517
- Address: Piccadilly station, Station Approach, Piccadilly, City Zone Manchester M2
- Owner: Network Rail
- Rail companies operating: Transpennine Express, Virgin Trains, Arriva Trains North &tc
- Funding: Network Rail, HS2 Ltd, UK Government, TfGM
- Current number of platforms: 14 (+2 Metrolink) (ranked 15th in UK)
- Planned number of platforms: 24 (+4 Metrolink) (ranked 1st in UK)
- Cost: £1.6bn
- Projects involved: Metrolink, High Speed Two, Northern Powerhouse Rail, Northern Hub
Current status: Pre-Planning (navigating through Government)
Nearest transport: N/A
Plans to make Manchester's Piccadilly station the UK's largest rail station moved a step closer yesterday as the government announced it was committed to bringing High Speed Two to Manchester.
Beforehand, Phase 1 of the line (between London and the West Midlands) had been confirmed, but now the strategic heart of HS2 (to link Manchester and London) has been confirmed.
But High Speed Two is not the only expansion planned at Piccadilly, as the diagram below shows. Currently, Piccadilly has 14 platforms - 2 through platforms which are elevated above the station, 12 terminus platforms for suburban and long-distance trains, and 2 Metrolink platforms underneath the station.
High Speed Two (HS2)
HS2 will bring an extra four terminating platforms to Piccadilly station - and will be added into a new train shed to the east (right on the diagram above) of the existing station. This area is currently an empty car park, and a back alley street (Sheffield St) will be transformed into a grand new atrium between the current station and the HS2 station. Retail, restaurants and waiting spaces will be added in underneath the HS2 platforms.
Northern Hub
The Northern Hub rail project will bring two new through platforms to Piccadilly station and will be added onto the south side of the station (on the left on the diagram above). These two new platforms will enable trains to run through Manchester from north to south, uniting not just the north and south of Greater Manchester but also helping to connect Northern England with central Manchester and Manchester Airport.
Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR)
To complement the North-South axis of HS2, government has also proposed an East-West axis in the form of Northern Powerhouse Rail - forming a hub at Manchester Piccadilly. NPR will run from Liverpool to Newcastle and Hull via Manchester - with a tunnel underneath the Pennine Hills to Leeds. The route will run underground through central Manchester, with a 4-platform cavern station deep underneath Piccadilly.
Metrolink
Metrolink at Piccadilly will be doubled in size to four platforms and pushed further underground, underneath the atrium between HS2 and the mainline station for ease of access.
Undercroft Retail
The enormous cavernous space underneath Piccadilly station will be transformed into a retail, dining and waiting space - making good use of the enormous redbrick arches, and linking across the station's Atrium into the waiting/dining space underneath the HS2 platforms.
All in all, by the mid-2030s Manchester's Piccadilly station will be the UK's largest - and probably busiest - transport hub. Multiple different modes of transport will integrate and entwine here: Metrolink, suburban rail, regional rail, National Rail, bus & coach services and potentially even international rail. It'll be a multi-level, multi-access behemoth embedded into the very centre of Manchester.
