Weston Williamson reveals plans to ‘save Manchester’ by burying HS2 station

Weston Williamson & Partners has drawn up a scheme showing how calls by Manchester’s leaders for an underground HS2 station could be implemented.

The architect also demonstrated how to turn the planned terminus into a through station to allow for future high speed train services to run on between Liverpool and Leeds via both Manchester Airport and Manchester Piccadilly. The Leeds leg of HS2 was killed off by ministers in November.

It comes as a bill was laid before Parliament yesterday to extend HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester. The government is seeking powers to lay new track and build new stations along the route known as phase 2b.

Manchester City Council leader Bev Craig and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham have both urged the government to reconsider the case for burying the H2S station rather than bringing trains in over viaducts which they argue would blight whole swathes of the city.

现在，威斯顿·威廉姆森发布了一份提案，展示了该公司如何将HS2和北方动力铁路公司现有的车站结合起来，在曼彻斯特皮卡迪利大街的新广场下创建一个枢纽。

Under the plans Station Square would provide a pedestrianised forecourt to the expanded station hub and be the focus for new urban regeneration proposed around Store Street, Chapeltown Street and the Ashton Canal.

Weston Williamson, working with Expedition Engineering, was responding to the National Infrastructure Commission’s call for evidence relating to rail needs for the Midlands and the North.

Weston Williamson founding partner Rob Naybour said the city leaders’ calls to bury the station were ”perfectly feasible and vital for Manchester’s future success”.

克雷格和伯纳姆对目前的提议表示担忧，该提议将在皮卡迪利大街上修建一个新的地面车站。对该计划的批评包括，它将占用太多的优质土地。

Naybour said: “HS2 will be transformational for Manchester, and yet the current plans for HS2 would turn Piccadilly into a dead end, destroy much of the city and put a stop to any hopes for onward high-speed connections to Leeds.

“曼彻斯特市议会要求重新考虑皮卡迪利大街，这绝对是正确的。我们的信息是明确的:重新思考不需要太长时间，因为我们的建议表明，地下枢纽不仅是可行的，而且是巨大的好处。”

Infrastructure specialist Weston Williamson, which has recently completed two stations for Crossrail in London and oversaw the redevelopment of the capital’s Waterloo station, said the new station should be a through station rather than the proposed terminus.