Passengers and businesses will reap the rewards of a new multi-million pound upgrade to Manchester Airport's railway station, just officially opened by Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon.

The £15 million project to build a new platform, completed as part of the wider modernisation of the West Coast Main Line, improves reliability for air passengers and airport workers and enables an increase in the number of services running into Manchester Piccadilly.


Geoff Hoon said: "Manchester is a major international gateway and this improvement to transport links will strengthen the local economy and bring significant benefits to passengers - that's why the Government has backed the £8.9billion upgrade to the West Coast Main Line.

"This new platform enables train services to run more reliably and provides extra capacity at the station, which will encourage more people to use public transport to access Manchester Airport. It also helps deliver a 50% increase in the number of services between Manchester and London."

The Transport Secretary visited the station today and marked the platform's official opening by unveiling a plaque.

The project, which was delivered 11 days early, began accepting train services in December 2008 after taking just over a year to complete.

(JM)(BMcC)