HARRY: Station Focus ~ Manchester Piccadilly

PICADILLY is one of four stations (Piccadilly, Oxford Rd, Victoria & Airport Parkway) located in Manchester, however it is the largest. 23 million passengers passed through between 2012 and 2013 making it the fourth busiest station outside of London, too! 

HISTORY:
Originally opened in 1842 (as Store Street), it was rebuilt in 1861, expanded in 1881 and renovated in 1960 (also renamed Manchester Piccadilly station).

PLATFORM CONFIGURATIONS AND DESTINATIONS:
The station has 16 platforms, two of which are for Manchester MetroLink whilst the others are for six national railway franchises. Twelve of these platforms are actually terminals for services to/from locations including Birmingham, Bristol, Chester, Crewe, Liverpool, London, Norwich, South Wales, Sheffield, Newcastle and York. 
Arriva Trains Wales, Virgin, Northern, Transpennine, Cross Country and East Midlands Trains units can all be seen here. These are in the form of voyagers, Class 150/156/158 sprinters, Class 175s, Class 323s, Class 185s and also occasionally Class 67s hauling MK3 carriages. Definitely a diverse selection! 
Announcements are pre-recorded (voiced by Anne), but manual announcements can be heard occasionally. 

2002 REFURBISHMENT:
£100 million was spent on the station in 2002 as part of an extensive programme to refurbish the station. The station has certainly changed significantly, as can be seen in this photo gallery that I've discovered. 

FUTURE:
It's also now possible that the station will be expanded once again to make way for new platforms as part of the Northern Hub project. This would include five new platforms for HS2 and two local platforms. 



That's all from me - Lewis is here Wednesday (no post tomorrow). Hopefully you found this post interesting, and apologies that I don't have any photos to add. I literally threw this post together as I didnt have much inspiration for post ideas. 
Regards:

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