Manchester

===Rail===
[[Manchester Liverpool Road railway station|Manchester Liverpool Road]] was the world's first purpose-built passenger and goods railway station<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/aGqH_KJZSq6XUSo3q5UdEw |title=A History of the World: Liverpool Road Station sundial |publisher=BBC |access-date=9 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140802230037/http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/aGqH_KJZSq6XUSo3q5UdEw |archive-date=2 August 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> and served as the Manchester terminus on the [[Liverpool & Manchester Railway]] – the world's first [[Inter-city rail|inter-city]] passenger railway. It is still extant and its buildings form part of the [[Science & Industry Museum]].

[[File:Piccadilly Station Manchester - geograph.org.uk - 692981.jpg|thumb|[[Manchester Piccadilly station|Manchester Piccadilly railway station]], the busiest of the four major railway stations in the [[Manchester station group]] with over 32 million passengers using the station in 2019/20<ref name=ORR/>]]
Two of the city's four main line termini did not survive the 1960s: [[Manchester Central railway station|Manchester Central]] and [[Manchester Exchange railway station|Manchester Exchange]] each closed in 1969. In addition, [[Manchester Mayfield railway station|Manchester Mayfield station]] closed to passenger services in 1960; its buildings and platforms are still extant, next to [[Manchester Piccadilly station|Piccadilly station]], but are due to be redeveloped in the 2020s.

Today, the city is well served by its rail network although it is now working to capacity,<ref>{{Cite news |title=Extra track suggested to ease Manchester's rail bottlenecks |url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/eef5e63a-1b62-11df-838f-00144feab49a,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Feef5e63a-1b62-11df-838f-00144feab49a.html%3Fsiteedition%3Duk&siteedition=uk&_i_referer=#axzz2jybR0Zv4#axzz1ox1RWxvB |work=Financial Times |date=17 February 2010 |access-date=13 March 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116173005/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/eef5e63a-1b62-11df-838f-00144feab49a,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Feef5e63a-1b62-11df-838f-00144feab49a.html%3Fsiteedition%3Duk&siteedition=uk&_i_referer=#axzz2jybR0Zv4 |archive-date=16 January 2014 }}</ref> and is at the centre of an extensive county-wide railway network, including the [[West Coast Main Line]], with two mainline stations: [[Manchester Piccadilly railway station|Manchester Piccadilly]] and [[Manchester Victoria railway station|Manchester Victoria]]. The [[Manchester station group]] – comprising Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Victoria, [[Manchester Oxford Road railway station|Manchester Oxford Road]] and [[Deansgate railway station|Deansgate]] – is the third busiest in the United Kingdom, with 44.9&nbsp;million passengers recorded in 2017/2018.<ref name="ORR">{{cite web |url=http://orr.gov.uk/statistics/published-stats/station-usage-estimates |title=Estimates of station usage |publisher=[[Office of Rail & Road|Office of Rail Regulation]]|date=22 April 2014 |access-date=9 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170625013846/http://www.orr.gov.uk/statistics/published-stats/station-usage-estimates |archive-date=25 June 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[High Speed 2]] link to [[Birmingham Curzon Street railway station|Birmingham]] and [[Euston railway station|London]] was also planned, which would have included a {{Convert|12|km|abbr=on|0}} tunnel under Manchester on the final approach into an upgraded Piccadilly station,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-21230543 |title=HS2 to enter Manchester via tunnel under city |work=BBC News |date=28 January 2013 |access-date=9 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924131121/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-21230543 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> however this was cancelled by Prime Minister [[Rishi Sunak]] in October 2023.<ref>{{cite web |title=North West to benefit from £19.8 billion transport investment |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/north-west-to-benefit-from-198-billion-transport-investment |website=GOV.UK |access-date=5 October 2023}}</ref>

Recent improvements in Manchester as part of the [[Northern Hub]] in the 2010s have been numerous electrification schemes into and through Manchester, redevelopment of Victoria station and construction of the [[Ordsall Chord]] directly linking Victoria and Piccadilly.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Topham |first=Gwyn |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/07/george-osborne-northern-hub-rail-project |title=George Osborne launches £600m Northern Hub rail project |journal=The Guardian |date=7 February 2014 |access-date=9 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009134654/http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/07/george-osborne-northern-hub-rail-project |archive-date=9 October 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> Work on two new through platforms at Piccadilly and an extensive upgrade at Oxford Road had not commenced as of 2019. Manchester city centre, specifically the [[Castlefield Corridor]], suffers from constrained rail capacity that frequently leads to delays and cancellations – a 2018 report found that all three major Manchester stations are among the top ten worst stations in the United Kingdom for punctuality, with Oxford Road deemed the worst in the country.<ref>{{Cite web |title=UK's railway stations with most train delays revealed |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-45864908 |work=BBC News |date=16 October 2018 |access-date=26 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517223302/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-45864908 |archive-date=17 May 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>