Bridge proposed to address Piccadilly’s platform 13 and 14 quandary

They could also install automated barriers instead of employing 5-10 people to mill about in the entrance to the platforms.

The solution? A tunnel. There, I fixed it.

In my opinion at busy times platform 13 and 14 are dangerous for passengers and staff. Something needs to be done quickly.

A sticking plaster solution. Not solving the long term challenges of the need for additional platform capacity at Piccadilly. Typical of the type of problem solving we get in the north. Will the Mayor please step in and get his size 10s out.

Just build platforms 15/16 already. Less of the tinkering round the edges.

So the D of Transport ordered a rethink. No suggestions from them of a better/alternative solution. Just the usual fobbing-off for the North.

The additional platforms they are currently planning will be essentially be a platform 0 on the opposite side of the station to terminate the longer trains from the Transpennine Upgrade.

Tinkering with the problem!

It would help if you used a picture of Piccadilly instead of Victoria Station.

The utter contempt Network Rail and the Government of the day towards rail projects outside of the South East is a disgrace.
The powers that be sat in offices working on extending lines or funding mega projects like the Elizabeth line down there.
We can’t even get two new platforms at what is one of the major stations in the country.
Greater Manchester needs a full time lobbying group to hound these organisations every week.

Relatively small-scale projects in isolation are not the answer; Piccadilly needs a St Pancras-style makeover including future-proofing, with properly thought-out development plans simultaneously put in place elsewhere.
Fixing Piccadilly will make no difference if the capacity problems are simply shunted to Oxford Road or Stockport for example.

Why not re-open Mayfield as a station, instead of building other platforms to the north of Piccadilly

Need to. I improve the infrastructure of the railways first

Reinstate Mayfield for stopping trains? Problem is the 2 track bottleneck over the viaduct to the river.

Once again, go for the budget solution which still probably won’t get delivered..

The real solution to this problem was put forward years ago….platforms 15-16. Are we ever going to get the infrastructure spend we deserve in the north…..its just depressing.

Surely the simplest solution is to run longer trains with metro style doors? This would enable more passengers to be moved. The only changes would be some platform lengthening along each line as well as the Castlefield corridor. The Norwich to Liverpool train should be terminated at Manchester to free up space

Wouldn’t an easy or temporary solution to be a development of what is already there. Having the staggered 13 and 14 and adding a barrier on the platform edge that is not in use?

13 and 14 are the basis of the first suburban railway in the world. Build into the poverty stricken area of Little Ireland, where Engles had his mill. As other people have said this is where a underground tunnel is needed, like edge hill in Liverpool. Forgot the third line to Liverpool and Powerhouse rail nonsense. Solve these pinch points and most of the railsproblems will be solved

Reopen manchester mayfield next door

The platform use to have its own entrance, just reopen that!

From the main station concorse to 13 and 14, there is a long ramp to a holding area, where passengers wait until they are called forward, via digital display, to their train a couple of minutes before it arrives. This system avoids mass overcrowding on the two platforms.

Obviously we need platforms 15 and 16 but because it’s not London there’s no money

Making sure the Fairfield Street lift up to platforms 13:14 was operational at ALL times would be a start. As a disabled person, having to regularly walk all the way around is absolute agony.

The obvious solution – rebuild the life-expired (or soon to be) concrete viaduct, add two platforms while they’re at it and sort out this mess once and for all. Can’t hold this off forever.

Was OK to spend some £240 million to build the new Beaulieu Park station near Chelmsford, and something similar on the earlier Cambridge North & South stations – with another proposed by Cambridge Technology Park – but anything costing around that amount in the north is never deemed as cost effective to allow it to go ahead.

People here stating that we should be building a platform 15 and 16 seem to fail to consider the predominant factor preventing that happening, the castlefield corridor is physically incapable of handling a platform 15 and 16 given it is already a severe bottleneck, and it can’t be widened because of all the buildings around it.

We need the tunnels underneath the city centre in order to divert either the local or high speed trains through, because we can’t have both on the castlefield corridor which frankly is unlikely to EVER be expanded mind you.

It is like putting a plaster on a missing limb by building a platform 15 and 16, you aren’t addressing the fundamental problem beneath the lack of platforms at Piccadilly, which is that castlefield corridor.

We should be deadset on these tunnels, it is the only feasible way forward with this.

I’ve given up on seeing any improvements actually happening. Don’t believe it until you see it!!!

Last week = Manchester will build an underground!

This week = we might look at a bridge to relieve the massive overcrowding on our creaking Victorian infrastructure.

Platforms 15-16 were PROMISED in 2014 at a cost of £23m. Still not delivered. In the meantime Crossrail has opened, its great! One station on Crossrail (Bond Street) had an overspend of £580 million. Not a budget of £580 million – an excess of £580 million. Still met by HMT.

This is what we’re dealing with here.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/millions-spent-not-improving-railways-28614747

No long term thinking as usual… They should have covered over the road ways to create a tunnel/bridge and extended onto mayfield instead of the nonsense venue years ago in the 2000 refurb … Then it was common sense and future proofing… Now it’s a problem.

If only there was somewhere else they could additional terminating platforms … like the large station building next door at Mayfield that could be rebuilt to put it back into use.

That and Platform 15-16 are both required ASAP.

In the long run it can only better the general public and ease conjestion

Mayfield, anybody?

Wouldn’t it be a good idea to get on with building Platforms 15&16 to take the pressure of Platforms 13&14, and allow more trains to operate through the Castlefield Corridor route?

Should have developed the old Mayfield Station years ago and linked that via a bridge, instead of letting it fall derelict!

Cut the number of airport trains that run one after another and use a shuttle train service from any of the other platforms!

Tunnel or build Platform 15 & 16…

As some commenters suggest, I don’t see how the Castlefield corridor copes with platforms 15 and 16. Any additional through train capacity should be underground

Re-open face lift at Mayfield Station then get brand new shuttle train to the Airport from Mayfield instead of though to Oxford Road station it would be perfect.

Find a way to remove from Piccadilly the goods trains that come from the south (Stockport) and head to freight terminals to the west of the city. More passenger trains would cut the over-crowding.

Fixing the lifts and the moving walkways to allow disabled people to access platforms 13 and 14 should be the priority.

I agree it’s something that needs happen as it only takes an East Midlands or Transport for Wales , Northern whoever to be slightly late and the knock on effect causes delays meaning late arrival payment schemes. Also you have quite a few freights to contend with, and although a new freight terminal to replace Trafford Park as been mooted, it’s still years away!

Great idea BUT capacity on the thru tracks is THE problem!
One solution would be to use the abandoned platforms on the other side of the thru platforms (Mayfield) and construct a parallel viaduct to Oxford Road (1 track, bi-directional).
Mayfield is a ready-made station that just needs some creative accounting and engineering to make it useful!

2 weeks ago platforms 13 14 dangerous overcrowded I had arrived from airport and many not sure where to go for connections

If you spend the cash you can sort the problem and the solution are tunnels. If you don’t spend the cash you won’t sort the problem

Maybe they could reopen manchester central