Upgraded Manchester Airport rail station officially opened
Government Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon officially opened the £15m upgrade to Manchester Airport railway station today.
The project to build a new platform improves reliability for air passengers and airport workers and enables an increase in the number of services running into Manchester Piccadilly.
The upgrade was completed as part of the wider modernisation of the West Coast Main Line.
Transport Secretary Hoon said: "Manchester is a major international gateway and this improvement to transport links will strengthen the local economy and bring significant benefits to passengers – that's why the Government has backed the £8.9bn upgrade to the West Coast Main Line.
"This new platform enables train services to run more reliably and provides extra capacity at the station, which will encourage more people to use public transport to access Manchester Airport. It also helps deliver a 50% increase in the number of services between Manchester and London."
The project had taken just over a year to complete and was delivered eleven days early. It began accepting train services in December 2008.