 | ||
Similar Fairfield railway station, Trafford Park railway st, Strines railway station, Bredbury railway station, Bramhall railway station | ||
The Manchester station group is a station group (for fares purposes) of four railway stations in Manchester city centre, England consisting of Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Oxford Road, Manchester Victoria and Deansgate. The station group is printed on national railway tickets as MANCHESTER STNS. For commuters in Greater Manchester the four stations are printed as MANCHESTER CTLZ which additionally includes use of Metrolink tram services in the City Zone (between Deansgate-Castlefield, New Islington and Victoria).
Contents
The Manchester station group does not include Manchester Airport station, nor Salford Central railway stations. Some routes stop at multiple stations in the group such the First TransPennine Northwest route which calls at Deansgate, Oxford Road and Piccadilly.
It is permitted that rail passengers may board or disembark at any one of these four stations. National visitors from outside Greater Manchester with MANCHESTER STNS as the destination are not permitted to use Metrolink as it is a locally funded transport service by TfGM and receives no national government subsidy.
Note that when using the National Routeing Guide, Salford Central railway station is shown as part of the Manchester Group. This means that tickets to or from Salford with Route: Any Permitted have the same validity as those to or from MANCHESTER STNS, but cannot be used interchangeably.
Greater Manchester passengers
Passengers who travel on rail services from the Greater Manchester area into one of the four Manchester stations will be issued with a ticket stating the destination as Manchester CTLZ as opposed to Manchester Picc or Manchester Vic. This allows visitors to use Metrolink trams between stops in the City Zone for free on the presentation of a Manchester CTLZ rail ticket. The Freedom of the City scheme was introduced in 2005 by GMPTE, now Transport for Greater Manchester. The City Zone includes nine Metrolink tram stops:
National Rail passengers
Passengers travelling into Manchester from outside the Greater Manchester county are not permitted to use rail tickets to travel around the city centre on the Metrolink. As a consequence the destination on the orange rail tickets is stated as Manchester STNS. The Manchester Metrolink is a locally funded transport system which receives no national subsidy from central government. National Rail passengers can alternatively use the free Metroshuttle bus situated outside stations to get around the city centre.
Future
Many journeys which call at Manchester stations slow down due to the populated nature of Greater Manchester and congested routes; Network Rail have described it as a 'bottleneck'. In 2010 the Manchester hub study was released with a series of proposals to decreasing journey times.
Central to the plan is the Ordsall Chord which will link all four of Manchester's main stations. Two new through platforms will be built at Piccadilly and Victoria will be upgraded. The implementation of the Northern Hub proposals would reduce journey times to and from Liverpool by 15 minutes, Leeds by 15 minutes and Sheffield by 5.
Closed
One of the first inter-city railway stations in the world was Manchester Liverpool Road station on Liverpool Street. On 15 September 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened and services terminated at the station. Part of the station frontage remains, as does the goods warehouse. Both of these structures are Grade I protected and are part of the Museum of Science and Industry.
All four of Manchester's termini (Piccadilly, Mayfield, Exchange and Victoria) were not recommended for closure in the first Beeching Report, but the reduced rail traffic caused by the closure of other railway lines meant services were transferred to Piccadilly and Victoria. Consequently, trains to Exchange and Central stations were withdrawn; the latter was granted Grade II* and later converted into an arena and exhibition centre.