The Liverpool Road railway station in Manchester, dating from 1830, is the oldest surviving mainline station in the world.
Along with the surrounding Victorian track structures – including a Grade I listed brick viaduct designed by George Stephenson – it has been described by English Heritage as the railway equivalent of Stonehenge.
But Network Rail is prepared to cause what it admits will be “substantial harm” to parts of this historic setting – the terminus of the acclaimed Liverpool and Manchester Railway – by building a 3,600-foot viaduct called the Ordsall Chord just above it.
The £132m viaduct is the pivot-point in a wider £600m rail modernisation scheme called the Northern Hub, delivering a straight-through service between Manchester’s Victoria, Oxford Road, and Piccadilly stations, and substantially improving services across the north of England.
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