It’s something Andy Burnham, Bev Craig, and the Manchester Evening News have campaigned for
Andy Burnham has made rail a key part of his third mayoral term, bringing in eight Greater Manchester commuter lines to public control(Image: )
A new Manchester-Liverpool railway line will reportedly be constructed as part of a project to upgrade the north’s trains.
The government is said to be on the verge of rubber-stamping the new rail route between the north west’s largest two cities, something Andy Burnham, Bev Craig, and the Manchester Evening News have campaigned for since May 2024. They argue a new line Liverpool Central to a new underground Manchester Piccadilly, via Warrington Bank Quay and Manchester Airport, would boost capacity and alleviate congestion on northern lines.
The link will be ‘phase two’ of a cross-Pennine improvement programme with phase one comprising upgrades to existing lines between Leeds-Bradford, Leeds-York, and Leeds-Sheffield. Phase three will examine how connections from the east and west coasts could be implemented.
A formal plan on the Liverpool-Manchester line was presented to the government last May, with Andy Burnham saying he ‘hoped’ work would start in the early part of the 2030s’, however officials remain tight-lipped on when spades would be in the ground and trains start running.
(Image: James Manning/PA Wire)
Should the project go ahead as anticipated, it paves the way for a new underground Piccadilly station to be constructed, first being floated as a terminus for the aborted HS2 line. Coun Craig has long said heading underground would create a once-in-a-generation opportunity for city centre development, freeing up a huge swathe of land for homes and businesses in the heart of Manchester.
Mr Burnham is also pinning his hopes for underground Metrolink lines on an underground Piccadilly, planning three routes centered around the hoped-for subterranean station.
He said last July: “We will need infrastructure on a bigger scale to cope. It’s not a throwaway line. I am deadly serious.
“I want Transport for Greater Manchester to start preparing the original, first concept for what an underground for Manchester might look like. I’m going to open the earliest conversation with the government on what the funding mechanism will look like.”
The three routes are thought to follow the south-west to north-east axis, from around MediaCityUK or Trafford towards Atom Valley, a north-west to south-east heading, and north-south via the hospitals and universities out to the Airport.