Manchester station group

"Manchester railway station" redirects here. For the station in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, see Manchester station (MBTA).

Heavy rail stations in Greater Manchester
A ticket from Manchester Stns to Preston. Any route is permitted, so the passenger has a choice of embarking from either Piccadilly, Oxford Road or Deansgate on the TransPennine Express North West route, the Northern route or from Victoria by Northern Trains

The Manchester station group is a station group (for fares purposes) of four railway stations in Manchester city centre, England; this consists of Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Oxford Road, Manchester Victoria and Deansgate.[1] The station group is printed on national railway tickets as MANCHESTER STNS. For passengers travelling from one of the 91 National Rail stations in Greater Manchester, the four stations are printed as MANCHESTER CTLZ which additionally permits the use of Metrolink tram services in Zone 1 (between Cornbrook, New Islington and Victoria).

The Manchester station group does not include Manchester Airport station, nor Salford Central. Since the opening of the Ordsall Chord in 2017, there has been an increase of through as opposed to terminating services; for example, the TransPennine Express from Saltburn to Manchester Airport now calls at Victoria, Oxford Road and Piccadilly.

Rail passengers may board or disembark at any one of these four stations.[2] National visitors from outside Greater Manchester with MANCHESTER STNS as the destination are not permitted to use Metrolink in Zone 1, as it is a locally-funded transport scheme and receives no national government subsidy.[3]

When using the National Routeing Guide, Salford Central is shown as part of the Manchester Group.[4] This means that tickets to or from Salford with 'Route: Any Permitted' have the same validity as those to or from MANCHESTER STNS, but cannot be used interchangeably.

  1. ^ "Estimates of Station Usage 2015–16 -Methodological Report" (PDF). Office of Rail and Road. p. 57.
  2. ^ "FAQs – I have bought a train ticket that states Manchester Stations as the destination. Can I use this on the Metrolink in the city centre?". Metrolink. Archived from the original on 19 January 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  3. ^ "Freedom of Information – Subsidies and passenger numbers for National Rail, Manchester Metrolink and London Underground" (PDF). gov.uk. 31 May 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  4. ^ "National Rail Station Groups" (PDF). Retrieved 12 March 2017.