• Labour to revive Northern Powerhouse Rail project (The Guardian)
• Is HS2 heading to Manchester by stealth? (Michael Dnes)
• Revival of Northern Powerhouse Rail could save HS2 to Manchester (James O’Malley)
• ScotRail to scrap peak fares to boost mode share (ScotRail)
• How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love Thanet Parkway (The Beauty of Transport)
• Nobody thinks about parking, but it’s the dark matter that crowds cities: Podcast (Challenger Cities)
• The economics of US railway station retail malls: Video (The Hustle)
• Australian Suburban Rail Would Be Great for North America (Next Metro)
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Looking at James O’Malley’s piece, if it’s going to be done (and I see a big “if”), essentially what the Manchester element of “Northern Powerhouse Rail” becomes is a bit like Crossrail or Thameslink.
What I’m less clear on, is how much building a big underground extension of Manchester Piccadilly for limited stop services like HS2 (and to terminate them) brings as a benefit.
While costly, building something like the St Pancras Thameslink platforms underground to the north of Manchester Piccadilly seems possible (and more modest) and stacking two extra platforms above (perhaps at surface level) for “terminators” from the South might also work.
Liverpool got a “crossrail” as a part of terminal rationalisation and I can see the Manchester – Leeds (transpennine) upgrade will help as far as Manchester Victoria but linking Leeds to Liverpool, crossing central Manchester is the obvious problem.
Given the scale of buildings in central Mancester, any “crossrail” tunnel would need to be very deep and linking to lines going towards Leeds requires a sharp curve from the alignment of Piccadilly.