Trains to Manchester Piccadilly - Station Details and further Information on the Manchester Piccadilly Area
Manchester Piccadilly station is the principal train station of Manchester in England. It serves intercity routes to London Euston, Birmingham New Street, South Wales and the south coast of England, Edinburgh and Glasgow Central in Scotland, and routes throughout northern England. One of 18 British train stations managed by Network Rail, it is the largest and busiest of the five city centre train stations in Central Manchester/Salford, the others being Manchester Victoria, Salford Central, Deansgate and Manchester Oxford Road.
Piccadilly is the busiest station in England outside London for passenger usage, and the second busiest station in the United Kingdom outside London. According to an independent poll carried out in 2007, Manchester Piccadilly has the highest customer satisfaction level of any UK station, with 92% of passengers satisfied with the station; the national average was 60%.
The terminal part of the station consists of twelve platforms and generally service terminating/originating services with a longer stopover, while the busiest part of the station consists of platforms 13 and 14, the former MSJAR platforms, which are now used by through services via Manchester Oxford Road to North Wales, Liverpool, North-Western England, Glasgow and Edinburgh, including through services from Manchester Airport and split into a and b sections to allow more than one train to stand at a time. These through services tend to have much shorter linger times.
Manchester Piccadilly Train Station Facilities
The Fairfield Street entrance, at basement level, serves the car park, taxi rank, and the Manchester Metrolink station. Above, at track level, is a large modern concourse into which the main entrance from Piccadilly Approach feeds. It contains ticket offices, information points, seating, modern timetables, public toilets, shops (including, but not limited to, Sainsbury's, WH Smiths and Thorntons) and food/drink outlets (including, but not limited to, The Upper Crust, Burger King and Starbucks). Above the concourse is a second level of food outlets (including KFC) and bars, as well as the Virgin Trains First Class Lounge.
On the main concourse, glass doors within a large glass wall lead to platforms 1 to 12 in the main trainshed. A travelator leads to the upper concourse linked by footbridge, steps and lift to platforms 13 and 14. This island lounge contains a WH Smiths and Costa Coffee bar, as well as customer toilets and a 'departure lounge' with seating. There are also vending machines and two waiting areas/snack bars on platforms 13/14.
Manchester Piccadilly is fully accessible for disabled people, including (as well as static stairs), escalators and lifts to all levels, wide access doors and gates, Braille, and hearing loops throughout, as well as disabled toilet facilities.
Manchester Piccadilly handles about 1,000 train movements daily.
Manchester Piccadilly station is currently the terminus for Manchester Metrolink services to Bury, Altrincham, and Eccles. The Metrolink station, situated in a vaulted undercroft underneath the mainline station, is one of eight serving Manchester city centre, within the system's City Zone. Trams running from Piccadilly Gardens run down Aytoun Street, then cross onto London Road and run a short distance on segregated track, before crossing the road and entering the station undercroft through a tunnel entrance.
The station is the busiest on the Metrolink network. Under current arrangements, there is are separate arrivals and departures platforms; after arrival passengers disembark, the empty tram runs into a reversing siding in a tunnel, where it reverses and runs up to the departure platform. In earlier years a different arrangement was in place: one platform was used to handle all arrivals from Altrincham/departures to Bury, and the other platform was used for arrivals from Bury/departures to Altrincham and all services to/from Eccles, with a crossover built just outside the station to allow access to and from either platform.
The tram station has recently gone under a major refurbishment, and is the first to display the new Metrolink corporate identity which was unveiled in 2008. Station signage now bears the yellow and silver livery which is to be applied to the new generation of trams from 2009. |
