Windsor Link Line, Salford
The Windsor Link is a 700 metre railway line in Salford, Greater Manchester that connects Salford Crescent and Deansgate stations.[1] It was opened by British Rail in May 1988, and came into full use in 1989.[2][3] This link allows services from north west of Manchester (such as from Southport via Wigan and Bolton, also from Blackpool and Lancaster via Preston) to access Manchester Piccadilly station. Prior to the link's construction, services from this direction could only run into Manchester Victoria station. Services then continue south east from Piccadilly to destinations such as Manchester Airport, Buxton, Hazel Grove and Chester. Government approval for the link was granted in 1985, and it was constructed at a cost of £12.5 million.[4][5]
The link starts just south of Salford Crescent station, diverging southwards from the route to Manchester Victoria at Windsor Bridge Junction (hence the name) and ends half a mile later at a junction with the route of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway at Ordsall Lane Junction,[3] just to the west of the former Ordsall Lane station. Trains using the link then run along that route for a very short distance before turning off onto the route of the Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway to reach Deansgate, Oxford Road and Piccadilly.[5]
As part of the electrification of the line between Manchester and Preston the link was electrified in the 2010s.
See also
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Notes
- Windsor Link gets go-ahead Rail Enthsiast issue 45 June 1985 page 28
- Bridge completes Windsor Link The Railway Magazine issue 1046 June 1988 page 350
- "A Brief Rail History of Manchester: 1980s Developments". Light Rail Transit Association. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
- Intelligence Railway Gazette International June 1985 page 398
- Holt, Geoffery (1986). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, Volume 10, The North West. David St John Thomas. p. 244. ISBN 0-946537-34-8.