A viaduct which will connect three Manchester railway stations has been approved by the Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin.
The Ordsall Chord will link Piccadilly, Oxford Road and Victoria in the city.
It is part of the multi-million pound Northern Hub upgrade for rail services across the North of England.
Network
Rail said it would ease a "rail bottleneck" south of Piccadilly and
enable more trains to travel through Manchester city centre.
The
viaduct will enable an extra two fast trains per hour between Manchester
Victoria and Liverpool and Leeds and Manchester, plus a direct service
through Manchester city centre to Manchester Airport.
As a result of the new rail link, Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) will lose its connection to the main line.
The
museum's site is the former Liverpool Road Station, which was the
original Manchester terminus of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
MOSI
director Sally MacDonald said: "The construction of the chord is a
reflection of the same kind of world-changing idea that first brought
the railway to Manchester.
