Manchester Piccadilly station
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Manchester Piccadilly station is the principal railway station of Manchester in England, and lies on the Manchester loop of the West Coast Main Line. It serves intercity routes to London Euston, Birmingham New Street, Cardiff and the south, Glasgow Central, and routes throughout the north of England. It is one of two major railway stations in Manchester, the other being Manchester Victoria.
The station was originally opened in 1842 as Store Street, but soon became known as London Road station, the terminus of the Manchester and Birmingham Railway, shared with the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway. The terminal part of the station contains 12 platforms, while the busiest part of the station is platforms 13 and 14 which served the former Manchester South Junction and Altrincham Railway, (opened in 1849), which provides the only through route for trains running through Manchester from southeast to northwest (e.g. Bournemouth - Reading - Birmingham - Manchester - Preston - Glasgow).
In 1910 a second terminus, Mayfield station, was opened to cope with the huge volume of passengers. It was closed generally to passenger trains by 1952 but remained in use until 1960 chiefly for one specific passenger train, the Pines Express from Bournemouth to Manchester. It reopened as a parcels depot in 1970 but closed again. The long-disused building is still intact and visible across Fairfield Street from platforms 13 and 14. There has been some speculation [link] that Mayfield may be refurbished to serve once again as an 'overspill' annexe to Piccadilly station.
The station was renamed Manchester Piccadilly when it was rebuilt in 1960 for the new electric train services to London. The glass roof over the terminal platforms was completely replaced in the late 1990s. In 2001-2002, as part of preparations for the 2002 Commonwealth Games the remainder of the station was rebuilt, greatly increasing the size of the station concourse and improving access for road traffic.
In the mid 1990s the station undercroft (2 levels below the main rail platforms) was converted to provide two platforms for the Manchester Metrolink tram system, where Piccadilly station is currently the terminus for services to Bury, Altrincham, and Eccles.
On July 9, 2005, the station was at the centre of a security alert when unattended luggage was found on a train at the station, exactly two days after the July 7th attacks in London. The station was evacuated while bomb disposal units carried out a controlled explosion. The station was later reopened.
Piccadilly station handles approximately 1,000 train movements daily.
Services
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0.5em auto; text-align: center;" |- ! Preceding station ! colspan="3" | National Rail ! Following station
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0.5em auto; text-align: center;" |- ! Preceding station ! colspan="3" | Manchester Metrolink ! Following station
External links
- [Station information] on Manchester Piccadilly station from Network Rail
- [Train times] and [station information] for Manchester Piccadilly station from National Rail
- [Street map] and [aerial photo] of Manchester Piccadilly station from Multimap.com
| Major UK railway stations | |
|---|---|
|
Aberdeen |
Belfast Central |
Birmingham New Street |
Brighton |
Bristol Temple Meads |
Cardiff Central |
Crewe |
Derby Edinburgh Waverley | Gatwick Airport | Glasgow Central | Glasgow Queen Street | Leeds City | Liverpool Lime Street Manchester Piccadilly | Manchester Victoria | Newcastle Central | Nottingham | Reading | Sheffield | York | |
| Railway stations of London Central area | Greater London |
|---|
| Blackfriars station>Blackfriars | Cannon Street | Charing Cross | City Thameslink | Clapham Junction | Euston Fenchurch Street | King's Cross | King's Cross Thameslink | Liverpool Street | London Bridge Marylebone | Moorgate | Paddington | St. Pancras | Victoria | Waterloo |
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