THIS is an open letter from Castlefield residents concerning Ordsall Chord. Any other residents of any of the city areas that want their voices heard please be in touch and we'll see if we can help.
Matt Hadlington
Communications Manager
Network Rail
21 December 2012
Dear Mr Hadlington
Ordsall Chord Consultation
The following comments on the proposed Ordsall Chord are from the 35 Castlefield residents, business representatives, property owners and a Ward Councillor named at the end of this submission.
Strong support
We wholeheartedly support the construction of the Ordsall Chord - we’ve been waiting for it for more than 30 years. We welcome the benefits it will bring by reducing congestion in the southern approach to Piccadilly Station and so shortening journey times and increasing service frequency in the North West and beyond.
The right option
We fully support your chosen option of ‘a new section of track at the same height as current railway lines’ as against the short flyover, long flyover and tunnel options.
Bring on the Bowstring
We have a very strong preference for the Bowstring design for the bridge across the Irwell. This will lift the spirit and celebrate the railway with much more grace and zing than the more minimalist linear Half Through design and will be a more fitting addition to the existing and historic Castlefield bridgescape and townscape.
Massive Yes to Corten
We love the use of weathering steel (Corten) in both designs, providing, as you say, ‘visual reference to the historic massive brick and masonry of viaducts’ nearby. While we agree that in principle a sleeker aesthetic of a clean, white finish can also suit the Bowstring design, we consider that Corten would be far more appropriate in this particular historic setting. As Corten was specifically developed to give a stable rust-like appearance when exposed to weather and so eliminate the need for painting, its use should also reduce maintenance costs.
Water Street cast iron bridge
We ask you to consider incorporating the cream and brown sides of the existing cast iron Water Street Bridge into your new bridge across Water Street if possible. This design echoes the design of many other railway bridges in Castlefield and so contributes to the character of the Conservation Area. If this isn’t possible, we ask you to dismantle the sides with great care so they can be used elsewhere in Castlefield or the city.
The MOSI railway line
We cannot agree to the way the proposed line cuts across and truncates the railway line currently used for steam trips by MOSI. While we welcome the fact you are exploring ways of creating an alternative line within the MOSI site to enable the thousands of visitors to MOSI each year still to enjoy steam trips of roughly the same length as at present, this does not entirely meet our concern.
Our key point is this: at present Liverpool Road station, the first passenger train station in the world, is connected to the national and indeed European railway network it generated, whereas if the Chord is built in its proposed form it will be disconnected from it. At present, you could catch a train from Liverpool Road station to Edinburgh, Brighton, Paris or Barcelona whereas the Chord in its proposed form will mean you won’t be able to catch a train to anywhere. The link that has been there for 182 years will be severed.
We understand from you that trains have made use of this connection only about three times in the last ten years and that this usage is considered insufficient to justify retaining the link. While we understand this thinking we consider it to be short-termist. Like the historic viaducts and bridges nearby, the new viaduct and bridges can be expected to last hundreds of years. Within that time it is not unrealistic to envisage that the wish to use a direct link to the national and European network might increase. We ask you to modify your design so that:
- the MOSI line crosses over the new line and joins the Deansgate to Salford Crescent and Eccles line as it does at present (even though, for practical and timetabling reasons, the crossover would obviously not be used by ordinary MOSI steam trips), or
- the MOSI line joins the new line with a set of points, or
- as an absolute minimum, you install the infrastructure for such a crossing or points in the way, for example, that designers of the Metrolink network have built infrastructure at Pomona to facilitate a future line to the Trafford Centre and Port Salford should funding become available.
Proximity to Liverpool Road properties
The new viaduct does pass very close indeed to properties at the western end of Liverpool Road. We ask you to move the junction of the Chord with the existing viaduct further west so as to minimise noise nuisance and disturbance to these properties both during and after construction.
Deansgate Station and footbridge
We ask you to carry out major refurbishment of Deansgate station and the footbridge across to the Deansgate-Castlefield tram stop.
At the moment this bridge is an eyesore. Last year, following intervention on behalf of the Castlefield Forum by our former MP, Tony Lloyd, the supporting structure was repainted and the plastic panels washed. But even the workers carrying out this work agreed with Forum representatives that this was inadequate. Broken plastic panels were not replaced and are still covered with pieces of tatty wood while the panels themselves are so discoloured and ingrained with dirt that they need replacing. In our view only replacement by strengthened glass (as in the bridge over Cross Street from the Arndale Centre to Marks and Spencer) would make this an elegant and fitting gateway to the city centre.
The covering to the stairs from the bridge down to Whitworth Street West is also extremely unsightly and the way the tin or plastic modern station sign is placed directly under the stone work of the original Knott Mill Station sign hardly seems appropriate for a Grade 2 listed building.
Repainting Castlefield railway bridges
As part of a programme of works associated with the Chord, we ask you to ensure that the bridges in Castlefield over the Rochdale Canal (near the Knott Bar) and over Deansgate (between Atlas Bar and Deansgate station) are repainted in red, cream and black to match those recently repainted over Castle Street and the Bridgewater Viaduct.
We were going to include a similar request to repaint the bridge spanning the Canal Basin from Potato Wharf to Catalan Square but last week we learnt the excellent news that Network Rail recently contracted Birse to carry out weather-proofing and painting of this bridge and that work is likely to start early in the New Year.
At the moment the repainted bridges make a fine and sparkling contribution to the Castlefield townscape but their impact is lessened by the proximity of fading discoloured bridges. So we also ask you to introduce a new painting programme so that in future bridges close to each other are repainted one after the other roughly at the same time.
Looking down on Castlefield from Beetham Tower
Castlefield signage
Over the last 3 years, with cash grants from the City Council and in partnership with Manchester Confidential, Countryscape, MOSI, Castlefield Estates and the Greater Manchester Archaeological Advisory Service, the Forum has been designing and delivering new Information Boards to replace damaged and out of date signage and so enhance the interpretation of Castlefield for residents and visitors. All existing Boards are to be replaced and, in addition, some completely new signs introduced.
Once the Chord is complete the Forum would wish to install a new Board on the Water Street side of the Irwell giving information not only about the 30 year history of the Chord, its rationale and construction but also about other transport structures nearby (e.g. Stephenson’s Bridge, the Manchester and Salford Junction Canal). They would also like to provide Information Boards on both platforms of Deansgate station although these could be in your standard perspex covered boards rather than free-standing. We ask you to agree to this proposal for Deansgate station and invite you to contribute text and funding to both initiatives.
Trains to stop at Deansgate station
Earlier in the Consultation the Forum considered asking for a new station on the Chord serving the Middlewood Locks area and the Water Street and ITV/Quay Street Regeneration areas all of which are due to be redeveloped over the next 10 years or so with a substantial number of new apartments, offices and retail and leisure outlets. However, looking at your chosen alignment and the short length of the Chord, we can see that construction of a new station might be difficult. As an alternative we ask you to ensure greater usage of Deansgate station once the Chord is built.
At present nearly if not all trains on the viaduct to and from Piccadilly stop at Oxford Road but only a small proportion stop at Deansgate. We do not understand the rationale for this. Unlike Oxford Road, Deansgate station provides a direct link to the Metrolink tram system for all stops to Altrincham, Eccles, MediaCityUk, Chorlton, Bury, Oldham, Shaw and, in the future, East Didsbury, Rochdale, Ashton, Wythenshawe and possibly the Trafford Centre and Port Salford. The station also serves the Manchester Central conference centre, the Hilton Hotel (Beetham Tower) and the large and growing population of Castlefield. We understand an additional stop adds only about 2 minutes to journey times.
We ask you to maximise public transport accessibility to all parts of the city by ensuring that all trains using the Chord stop at Victoria and Salford Central stations and that all trains using the existing viaduct between Piccadilly and Castlefield Junction stop at Deansgate, Oxford Road and Piccadilly stations.
For the same reason we also ask you to consider building a station near the site of the former Ordsall Lane station (closed in 1957 and subsequently demolished), so as to serve both the Middlewood Locks area and the growing residential area along Ordsall Lane south of Regent Road.
Renaming Deansgate station
We ask you to rename Deansgate station Deansgate-Castlefield. This would reflect more accurately the area served by the station and be consistent with the recent renaming (from GMex to Deansgate-Castlefield) of the Metrolink tram station to which it is linked by the footbridge over Whitworth Street West. The two stations are virtually one and we consider they should be treated as such. Renaming would make interchange between the two lines easier for visitors.
Community pay back
The construction of the Chord, although welcome, will certainly be very disruptive for parts of Castlefield and we are wondering if there could be some form of community pay back from Network Rail? We know some archaeological interests will be uncovered during construction and that there are findings of some earlier excavations in the Castlefield area which have not yet been published.
We are wondering if you could help fund a popular publication on Roman Manchester? The Forum also has plans to convert the disused viaduct beside the Metrolink line into a linear green park (The Hanging Gardens of Castlefield) similar to the High Line in New York and to convert the former Visitor Centre in Liverpool Road to a community facility. Support for these two projects would be greatly appreciated.
As we have made some very specific proposals and requests in this submission we would appreciate a detailed response or, better still, a meeting with you to discuss the points we make.
We are copying this submission to our MP, Councillors for the City Centre, Hulme and Ordsall Wards, TfGM, the Chief Executives and Leaders of Manchester and Salford City Councils and the MCC City Centre Regeneration Team.
Yours sincerely,
David Allred
Jon & Rachel Best
Declan Cahill
Marilyn Carroll
Ian Christie
Stephen Freeman
David Gearey
Giselle Gearey
Chris Gray & Toni Infante
Paul Greenall
Giles Grover
Steve Hall
Graham Hobbs
Ian Hornby
Debbie Hubbard
Roz Hughes
Ian James
Peter Jones
Stephen Lake & Amanda Jones-Lake
Daniel Leeson
Steven & Serpil Lindsay
Ali McGowan
Carol Middleton
Karl Milburn
David Noble
Cllr Kevin Peel
Carol Standfield
Claire Venables & Matthew Sutton
Ann & Colin Webb
Ordsall Chord
