Salford Crescent: Station upgrade and track revamp planned

Salford Crescent railway station is in line for an upgrade

A railway station in the north of England is to be upgraded and tracks will be refurbished, while a long-promised platform project is scrapped.

The Department for Transport said £72m will be spent on the revamp to reduce delays, including a third platform at Salford Crescent.

Network Rail said it had shelved plans for two new platforms at Manchester Piccadilly to speed up the process.

Mayor Andy Burnham criticised the decision to scrap the plans.

The funding will also see extra platform entry and exit points at Manchester Victoria Station.

'New approach'

The government said that would make it easier for passengers to travel through the station during busier periods.

Network Rail said it had withdrawn plans dating back more than a decade for platforms 15 and 16 at Manchester Piccadilly to solve the crippling rail congestion, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The plans for new platforms at Manchester Piccadilly are more than a decade old

Managing director Tim Shoveller said it was "really positive" news, "allowing us to get on with fixing the infrastructure around central Manchester so we can run trains more reliably".

"We're removing our previous planning application so we can move forward with a new approach, something we'll be consulting residents and businesses on later in the year," he added.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said in November "there was a "real problem"" to solve" on the railways in the North after meeting the mayors of West and South Yorkshire, Manchester, Liverpool and North of Tyne who had demanded an end to the "chaos" on the region's rail network.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham told BBC Radio Manchester the money was "welcome" but it was a "drop in the ocean when it comes to rail".

"It is a necessary investment to support the economy. It is welcome but it is nowhere near what Manchester needs to sort out our rail."

Regarding scrapping the plans for Piccadilly, he said plans to expand the station would continue to be a ambition for regional leaders.

"It is totally congested and we as a city region are absolutely committed to platforms 15 and 16," he said.

Rail Minister Huw Merriman said: "This new investment will help make trains services more reliable for the people of Manchester and beyond, marking another milestone in a decade's worth of rail improvements across the region."

Analysis

By Annabel Tiffin, BBC North West Tonight political editor

Any investment is welcome as passengers in the North West have had enough of delays and disruption and £72m is not a figure to be sniffed at.

But is the government giving with one hand and taking away with another?

For a decade, there have been plans for two new platforms at Manchester Piccadilly and an upgrade of Oxford Road and now they've been scrapped.

Network Rail's been told to go back to the drawing board and come up with another option and Mayor Andy Burnham is certainly not pleased.

He told me he'd been blindsided by this announcement and hadn't known anything about it until today.

Any investment is good, but the mood among Manchester's leaders and some rail experts is we need fewer announcements and more shovels in the ground to have a truly integrated rail system in the North West.

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