Manchester Piccadilly station

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-east of Manchester city centre, it hosts long-distance intercity and cross-country services to national destinations including London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Reading, Southampton, and Bournemouth; regional services to destinations in Northern England including Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle and York; and local commuter services around Greater Manchester. It is one of 19 major stations managed by Network Rail. The station has 14 platforms, twelve terminal and two through platforms. 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 nearly 28 million passenger entries and exits between April 2017 and March 2018, (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 annually.

Between the late 1990s and early 2000s, Piccadilly Station was refurbished, taking five years and costing £100 million (in 2002), it was the most expensive improvement on the UK rail network at the time. Further improvements and expansion plans have been proposed. In December 2014, a Transport and Works Act application was submitted for the construction of two through platforms as part of the Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Oxford Road Capacity Scheme. As of 2019, this application has not been approved by the incumbent government. To allow the station to accommodate high speed services under High Speed 2 proposals, five platforms would be required and the Metrolink station would be reconfigured. A preferred option of the more speculative High Speed 3 programme requires the construction of more platforms underneath the existing platforms.

Architecture
The listed train shed roof which is 105 metres wide between platforms 1 and 12, comprises four spans; two of the spans, 185 metres in length, were built over the eastern part of the station during the 1860s while the other two, at the western side measuring 150 metres, were constructed in the early 1880s. The roof is supported by masonry walls at the outer edges, which have round-headed windows alongside platforms 1 and 12, and rows of cast iron columns along the platforms in its interior space. The roof spans have an arrangement of wrought iron trusses with supporting cast iron struts on girders, which are evenly spaced between the columns.

As built, the roof was largely covered with slates with some areas of glazing; over time, the slates were replaced with boarded felt. Between 1997 and 1999, the station roof was refurbished and the traditional cladding was replaced with around 10,000 panes of toughened glass that 'float' above the wrought iron trusses. Layers of nets have been installed, to catch falling glass in the event of any of the panes were to break.

Below the train shed is the undercroft that was used as a goods station. Cast iron columns and brick arches support the terminal platforms directly above. Since the early 1990s, the undercroft accommodates the Metrolink station, its tracks, sidings, and car parking. Before it was reused for the Metrolink, the cast-iron columns throughout the undercroft were encased in concrete as a protective measure against collision.

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, doorways in a large glass partition wall access 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. During March 2010, Manchester City Council and Network Rail unveiled plans for a 'Cycle Centre' to provide secure facilities and on-site maintenance and hire services. The station has a taxi rank, drop-off/pick-up point, and short- and long-stay car parks. 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. Ticket barriers were fitted on platforms 1-3 by TransPennine Express, Platforms 9-12 remain ungated but for most of the day are staffed with ticket inspectors.

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, 1-4 are typically used by eastbound services to Marple, New Mills, Rose Hill and Sheffield via the Hope Valley Line, and services on the Glossop Line, platforms 5-9 are the longest and are used mainly by Virgin West Coast and CrossCountry services, platforms 10-12 are considerably shorter than the others and are usually used to accommodate local trains to Crewe and Manchester Airport, plus Mid-Cheshire line, Buxton Line and South Wales services; 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 was closed for railway use during 1986.

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 or Warrington Central, Preston via Bolton and Southport via Wigan Wallgate. 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.

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 are seen operating these services when 175s are not available. Two services on the North Wales Coast route are operated by Mark 3 carriages hauled by a Class 67.

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, Macclesfield, 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 regularly operated by Class 220 Voyager and Class 221 Super Voyager units.

East Midlands Railway
 * An 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 a half-hourly service to York via Manchester Victoria, Huddersfield and Leeds, with trains running through to either Newcastle or Middlesbrough. There is also an hourly train to Hull via Huddersfield and Leeds, and an hourly stopping service to Huddersfield. There are two trains to Manchester Airport on the North route.
 * 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 via Preston. In the opposite direction, this continues to Manchester Airport. These services to/from Scotland operated along the newly electrified route over Chat Moss and Wigan North Western when the service switched to electric traction in 2013, however from May 2019 these services have reverted to running via Bolton.

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 July 2016 (these have now been transferred to Chiltern Railways).

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.