Metrolink trams will return to a radically rebuilt Manchester Victoria station from February.
The announcement from Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) means that Manchester’s two main railway stations, Piccadilly and Victoria, will once again be directly connected via a light rail link.
Trams will start and finish at Victoria for a short period during February whilst work on other sections of the route are completed. Peter Cushing, TfGM’s Metrolink Director, said: “We’re looking forward to welcoming our customers back on board at Victoria as the station’s wider redevelopment enters its final stages.”
Redevelopment of the Metrolink interchange comes as part of Victoria’s wider redevelopment. Manchester Victoria was once famously branded ‘the UK’s worst railway station‘, a point at which Network Rail acknowledged the station was ‘punching below its weight‘ and embarked upon a £44million transformation project. Work will be completed on the station later in 2015.
The Metrolink expansion at Victoria ultimately paves the way for Manchester’s ‘second city crossing’ (2CC). 2CC will remove a bottleneck from the network by creating a second path through the city, linking Victoria with St Peter’s Square via Cross Street and Corporation Street.
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