Ordsall Chord

Overview

As part of our plan to improve rail travel in the North, Northern Hub, we need to build a new viaduct to connect Manchester’s Victoria, Oxford Road and Piccadilly stations.

This investment will help ease a rail bottleneck to the south of Piccadilly station and enable faster, more frequent services to run across the North of England

On Thursday 26 March, following an 18 month period of public consultation and a Public Inquiry held in spring 2014, the Secretary of State for Transport approved our application for a Transport and Work's Act Order for the powers needed to deliver the Ordsall Chord.

You can read the decision letter, and see the Planning Inspectors report at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/twa-inspector-reports-and-decision-letters

The plans

The plans include a new section of track to the north west of Castlefield Junction, in the vicinity of Ordsall.

This will link the Castlefield Junction line with the Deal Street Junction line, connecting Manchester’s three main stations for the very first time.

The benefits

•  Two new fast trains per hour between Manchester Victoria and Liverpool
• Six fast trains an hour between Leeds and Manchester (as opposed to four now)
• Faster journeys across the north
• A new direct service through Manchester city centre to Manchester Airport
• Faster journey times to Hull, Newcastle and the North East

Stay in touch

You can email the project team with any further queries at ordsallconsultation@networkrail.co.uk we will update this page with further information as it becomes available.

Why we are consulting