Why Manchester has two main railway stations - and why you're only just able to catch a train between them
manchestereveningnews.co.ukFor more than a century pretty much the only way of getting between Manchester's two main railway stations was on foot. Piccadilly and Victoria might have been two of the busiest stations in the North of England - but for a long time it was impossible to catch a train from one to the other.
The bizarre situation was a hangover from the Wild West of Victorian railway mania, when hugely powerful companies competed to build tracks across the country, without any thought for how the network might join up.
But those petty rivalries left Manchester with a headache that town planners and rail chiefs are still trying to cure almost two centuries later. Read more: Clipper Cards, Saver Sevens and the stench of diesel: The lost bus station that was under Manchester's Arndale As any train buff worth their salt knows Manchester was home to the world's first inter-city railway.
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, designed and built by George Stephenson, opened in 1830 and revolutionised Britain. But while Liverpool Road, which still stands as part of the Science and Industry Museum, may have been the world's first railway station, it was also one of the first stations to close, as the line was quickly overtaken in the boom of the following decade.
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