Etihad Campus, Stadium and Collar Site Development Thread

[BrianW]

In the medium term (say 7-10 years) there is a real opportunity for a new rail station directly serving the Sports City campus.

The rail lines are there now, but are scarcely used, just a few freight trains or empty trains getting to where they need to be.

But the interesting thing is that part of the Northern Rail Hub project the lines that currently are only used for freight will be used to carry east-west passenger traffic. The idea is that some services that currently go into via Piccadilly or carry on west via Manchester Oxford Rd will instead be routed along the Ashburys-Phillips Park line and then on to Victoria, either terminating there or carrying on to Liverpool, Bolton or wherever.

If this happens (as currently planned), we would have a lot of passenger trains using that currently underused line. There could easily be 4-6 trains per hour in each direction.

Plus there is plenty of space to build a new railway station in this area.

In terms of demand for the station, of course we already have the stadium and velodrome etc., but in future there will a lot of extra demand for access to the area with an expanded Stadium, a new Arena (if it happens), plus the plans for a new university campus and the new office developments etc. that are planned for the area immediately to the west of the Stadium. Plus there will very likely be new housing and student accommodation in the area too.

I guess ADUG would likely see the value of the station too as it would make the area more attractive for commercial tenants and new residents. It could also potentially reduce the need for car parking so they could use more land for development.

All this is common sense. Unfortunately that is in short supply, as is money if you mean Government money. Anything in England more than 25 miles from London is always short-changed. Whether the Sheikh feels like coughing up the extra millions I have no idea. A new station would certainly be a major boost for his current property and future investments. Apart from access to City, it would massively increase the attraction of housing in this area.

 

[remember arthur mann]

Suppose if it were Landen.....
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docklands_Light_Railway.

 

[nmc]

All this is common sense. Unfortunately that is in short supply, as is money if you mean Government money. Anything in England more than 25 miles from London is always short-changed. Whether the Sheikh feels like coughing up the extra millions I have no idea. A new station would certainly be a major boost for his current property and future investments. Apart from access to City, it would massively increase the attraction of housing in this area.

You are unfortunately correct. The shortsightedness and poor decision making from central government have completely undermined northern transport infrastructure and wasted millions. Why build the Ordsall chord - but then cancel the extra platforms at Piccadilly and the widening of the bottle neck to Oxford Road. Why electrify the Ordsall chord but then cancel the Manchester to Leeds electrification. HS2 is being cost reviewed by Liz Truss at the Treasury and as expected all works north of Birmingham will be cancelled. The disparity in infrastructure spend between London and the rest of the U.K. is now nothing more than a farce. Cross rail 2 will be approved shortly however, but then again that conveniently terminates in the Transport Secretary’s constituency. There is no Northern Powerhouse and the sooner politicians recognise that the better.

 

[NeilYoungIsBack]

All this is common sense. Unfortunately that is in short supply, as is money if you mean Government money. Anything in England more than 25 miles from London is always short-changed. Whether the Sheikh feels like coughing up the extra millions I have no idea. A new station would certainly be a major boost for his current property and future investments. Apart from access to City, it would massively increase the attraction of housing in this area.

Major infrastructure projects such as Crossrail are usually a mix of public money and private contributions (from major landowners with holdings near to planned stations).

As the major landowner in the area it would be reasonable to expect ADUG to make a significant contribution towards the cost of the station serving the Etihad Campus.

I am not an engineer or surveyor, but the last new railway station project I was involved with was Kenilworth in Warwickshire around 5 years ago, and that cost around £12 million including some land purchase costs for access/parking.

Of course costs have gone up and we would need a bigger station to cater for peak demand.

Edit: the new station currently being built at Warrington West (the Omega site) should be open by September 2019 and reportedly cost £19 million.

 

[Marvin]

Reality is you aren't going to have an Inter-City train just waiting for the game to finish and for City fans to pile on for a direct route down to London or wherever it is most blues go. They go to 4 corners. There is Ashburys. Few use it. Few use the train to Man Utd.

 

[jrb]

..

 

[cleavers]

Not saying your wrong........actually I am
A pissed idiot on front of level 3 jumping from his seat to celebrate a goal is yet to fall over the front.....is it ten years now

The point I made was not that someone might/would fall, it was that H&S won't allow standing in an upper tier, do you think they will ? Even when safety was far less considered it didn't happen.

Despite the very good point made by @Manchester33 makes, I still don't think H&S will let it happen.

 

[NeilYoungIsBack]

Few use the train to Man Utd.

no one does any more - they closed the station due to "lack of available capacity on the network"

 

[Deleted member 77198]

More on the proposed Eastlands arena.

Click on the link for full article.

Place North West.

‘Blood on the carpet’ if Eastlands arena approved

20 Jun 2019, 12:16

Jessica Middleton-Pugh

The operator of the Manchester Arena has spoken out against proposals for a 20,000-capacity venue as part of the regeneration of Eastlands, stating "it is just not possible" for the city to support two arenas.

Sharkey, executive vice-president of SMG Europe,.

He said that a £300m venue was on the cards, “and they will have to charge a fortune for tickets to make that back”.

Sharkey argued that despite the council’s insistence to the contrary, “the Eastlands arena is already a done deal”, with an operator lined up and an architect employed to work up designs.

https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/news/not-enough-demand-to-support-eastlands-arena/

Preposterous statement by the operator of the Arena.

It’s like saying the city can’t support multiple sports teams.

You could add up the crowds at all the small music venues across the city and get to 20000.

There have been Saturdays in the Autumn where City have played at home at 12:30, the Super League Grand Final has been at the Swamp at 18:00, the Arena has had a gig on at 21:00 and all the smaller music venues have had things going on; all at the same time.

One year the SL Grand Final at the Swamp was on at the same time as a RU World Cup England game at the Etihad as well as a gig at the Arena at the same time.

To say the city can’t support another arena is crazy.

You could have boxing on at the original Arena and a gig in at the new arena on the same night, or the world swimming champs at the Arena and a gig on at the new arena, or a Brian Cox on at the original Arena and Lee Mack on at the new arena. Easily!

In fact this city could host ALL of those things in one weekend if we had the facilities.

Rather than losing out on extra revenue to the Echo Arena we could accommodate more in Manchester and not miss out.

That bloke is taking out of his arse!

 

[HelloCity]

The Arena was the best in Europe when it was built.

Feels like it’s barely been touched in the time since though.

Needs an absolutely huge renovation to bring it to the standards of the worlds best arenas.