Transport for Greater Manchester has announced that Salford Central station will be closed for five months for refurbishment at the start of next year.
The £7.3m facelift will raise platforms one and two, and make the station more accessible. It will also add new canopies, coping stones, tactile platform paving and passenger information equipment.
To minimise disruption to rail passengers’ trains will still run through the station as usual; however, they won’t stop at the station during the refurbishments. Replacement bus services are being put in place to aid railway passengers.
The move comes after the Major of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, toured the city’s train stations earlier this year. He said: “It’s true of all of the Manchester stations if you go round them, Salford Central, Deansgate, Oxford Road, Piccadilly, they’ve barely seen any investment any of them.”
Mr Burnham criticised the large gap between the edge of platforms one and two and the trains. He continued: “For anyone with mobility challenges, it’s going to be impossible…it’s not even a station that some people can use.”
The work will be carried out from January 1 to May 21 2023 but concerns have been raised about the disruption to rail passengers moving between Manchester and Salford.
Commuter Kayleigh, who use the station, said the closure would affect her. She said: “It’s quite annoying really, because it’s very easy for me to get work from here because it’s only six minutes.”
A Network Rail spokesperson said: “We’re investing £7.3m to upgrade Salford Central station for passengers. This important work will raise the height of the platforms to improve stepping distances between trains and the platform edge, which will make the station more accessible for our passengers.
“The station is also getting a facelift, including a brand-new canopy, which will modernise Salford Central’s atmosphere and make trains more reliable throughout Greater Manchester”.
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