Manchester's two main train stations are set to be joined by an £85m direct train link.
The MEN understands Piccadilly and Victoria could be linked by a new section of track as part of a plan to slash journey times and boost economic growth.
Chancellor George Osborne is tipped to back plans for a curved section of track at Ordsall in Salford in his budget speech tomorrow.
It comes more than 30 years after a proposed underground link between the two stations - the so-called 'Picc-Vic line' - was abandoned because of costs.
The move would help uncork a massive bottleneck on the rail network around Manchester, known as the Northern Hub.
Sources say it will cut journey times between Manchester and Leeds by 14 minutes. Average journey times in the region will be cut by 30 minutes.
The link could open in 2016. It is understood the project will be funded through savings made by the Department for Transport.
The rail network around Manchester is already heavily congested and is tipped to deal with an extra 3.5m passengers a year.
There is too little track space and a lack of places for faster trains to overtake slower services. Tangled lines at junctions and on the approach to stations also cause delays.
But rail travel in Greater Manchester has jumped 82 per cent over the last decade and a report by rail bosses last year said investment in the hub was now vital for future economic prosperity of the north.
Network Rail's blueprint for the hub said £530m needed to be spent on a range of improvements - including the Ordsall curve - that it said would help provide an extra 700 train services through the region each day.
It said millions could also be spent on restoring Victoria to its former glory, building two new through platforms at Piccadilly and another one at Manchester airport under its plan to boost passenger and freight services to towns across Greater Manchester and beyond.
Transport secretary Philip Hammond is set to make a decision on the full Network Rail proposals in July next year.
Greater Manchester's transport chiefs are likely to welcome the expected announcement. They have been lobbying hard for investment in the region's rail network.
Coun Keith Whitmore, GMITA's vice-chairman, hailed Network Rail's plans last year as “of huge economic benefit”.
Mr Osborne announced his backing for the £200m electrification of rail lines in the north west in his spending review last October.
But the MEN told in November how Greater Manchester will get just a handful of extra carriages promised by the government to ease chronic overcrowding on the nation's railways.
The entire north of England has been earmarked to get just 100 of the 1,850 carriages that will be added to the network between now and 2019.
The government withdrew £5m that was due to go towards the revamp of Victoria station in spending cuts last year.
Business leaders were told by Transport Minister Theresa Villiers earlier this week a new high-speed rail network would provide jobs and prosperity for Manchester and the North West.
She warned that not introducing the government's plans for 250mph bullet trains to cut journey times between Manchester and London would increase the north-south divide.
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trains are great. i love trains.
Why not either walk between the two sations, get a free shuttle bus or a Matrolink (tow Metrolinks) do do thsi journey.
I note that it shaves off 14 minutes for people comeing from Leeds but as the current debate about the A6 in Salford shows there are many people wqho think that you should remain in a two mile radius of home lest you encroach on other people's territory.
Personally I am fine with 'outsiders' coming in but a few will not like us encouraging 'outsiders' into the Manchester and destroying it's peaceful haven villagey hamlet feel.
What route would the track take? Will it cut parts of the city off from the centre (from a pleasant environment point of view)?
''The new track at Ordsall would allow trains from Victoria to run back east through central Manchester and Piccadilly to Manchester Airport and other destinations. Extra track on the Manchester-Leeds and Manchester-Sheffield routes would allow trains to overtake stopping services''
The key word in all this is "could".
Sensible move. This was one of the suggestions I backed during last years consultancy by the Department for Transport. One concern is that the section of line between Deansgate and Piccadilly will become utterly jam-packed, however better signalling should fix this. The 80m price tag is quite high considering it is just a 250yds curved bridge at the back of Granada Studios Tours, but things tend to be expensive nowadays anyway. In real terms for anyone baffled by this project, it will mean trains from Rochdale and Ashton being able to extend beyond Manchester Victoria to Piccadilly and the Airport.
I think all this was "talked" about three years ago.
There's already a line (now disused) running off to the left as you leave Piccadilly.
What about opening Denton Station for onward trains to Stockport?
who thought up the time savings? as the track will link two stations where leeds trains already call how can this be
I'd rather see some kind of monorail system installed if the 2 stations are to be linked - probably cheaper than £85 million aswell, i can't see it costing more than £10 million a mile, but not exactly sure, unless anyone has any ideas on cost.
"Manchester's two main train stations". It's a railway station! Not a train staion. RAILWAY STATION!!!
Spending this much money is just betrain the public.
it takes 12 minutes to walk victoria to picc, is ti really worth spending £85m on? Spend it on the station by all means, renovate the original building and add something wacky to replace the roof, but £85m to alleviate a 12m walk when the tram already exists is a mad as having 2 lanes on the A6.....
So lets stop using the trams that take you from one station to the other eh,total waste of 85 million.
Won't happen...The south east will say they have a higher priority scheme and they will get the cash, always has, always will.
I am about to save Manchester £70M. Buy 2 extra trams and give me £10M for this consultation. Thank you.
£85 million + goodness knows how many millions for war in Lybia I think the ConDems have been lying when they tell us the economy is in a mess.
I vote we leave things the way they are. I fear change.
The original Picc Vicc scheme (which I am too young to remember apart from through transport lectures from my Town Planning degree course in Sheffield) needs to be revived in some form. It included underground stations at Whitworth, Central (beneath Albert Square) and Royal Exchange. The Arndale even had its foundations built to accommodate full length railway platforms with the capacity for 10-car trains. The original plans show an electrified route to Bolton via Radcliffe using the existing Bury Line. It lost out on funding thanks in part to the oil crisis and political and social protests in the Netherlands during the construction of the Amsterdam Metro.
In the long term I expect that there will still be a role for underground rail in Manchester. If you look at any typical rapid transit scheme (although all such examples are sadly to be found on the continent rather than closer to home), many evolve as patronage increases, so a guided busway may be upgraded to a light railway and that in turn may become a full metro as the passengers per direction per hour measure reaches a certain threshold. That is a fact I read in David Holt's excellent publication covering the history of Metrolink. Picc Vicc was the forerunner of the Metrolink system we have today. Who knows, we may still see Metrolink tunnels through Manchester at some point in the future, although my initial preference would be for Platforms 15 & 16 at Piccadilly to be built at Low Level along the lines of Platforms 16 & 17 at Glasgow Central, however that is not to say that any new underground platforms at Piccadilly could not be shared by light and heavy rail vehicles or Tram-Train!
I was impressed by the approach in Essen with the application of O-bahn technology using kerb guided buses sharing tunnels through the city centre with the metre-gauge tramway. So I think even the Leigh Guided Busway can be a success looking at overseas examples. And think about this in an advert that respected transport journalist Christian Wolmar found in a copy of Paris Match. SNCF announced the construction of a new high speed line. There is no business case for it but "we are doing it because it is the right thing to do".
Can somebody please explain how a new short curve to the west of Manchester will reduce the Leeds-Manchester time by 14 minutes?
A seriously worrying statement by Teresa Villiers threatening that prosperity in the North is dependent on HS2 at a cost of £32B. That will not be operational until 2030 at the earliest. Shame on her and her ineffectual government that they are relying on something 20 years away. That means they do not have a plan to do something NOW.
Investment in the rail infrastructure in the area is most welcome. However it is a long standing grievance that the largest town in England without access to the rail network, Leigh, won't be able to enjoy it's benefits. Leigh residents need to be re-connected, so we can use the improved network too.
Am I the only person to notice that it will actually cost £530 million in total.
"Network Rail's blueprint for the hub said £530m needed to be spent on a range of improvements - including the Ordsall curve - that it said would help provide an extra 700 train services through the region each day."
£530 million for the work, not just £85 million.