Andy Burnham demands to see the maths behind dashed plans for underground station at Piccadilly

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Leaders in Greater Manchester have demanded a breakdown of how high speed rail bosses have arrived at an 'unaffordable' estimate of £5bn for an underground station at Manchester Piccadilly.

Both Mayor Andy Burnham and Transport for the North have long-argued for an underground station to future-proof rail connections across the north and boost the value of HS2.

They have also said that the alternative - a ‘turn back’ station above ground on the northern flank of the existing hub - would create concrete jungle of viaducts which will ‘sever’ east Manchester, with 14,000 potential new jobs lost due to the amount of land needed to built it, cutting potential economic growth by an estimated £333m by 2050.

However, High Speed Rail director general Clive Maxwell, who this month told the Public Accounts Committee that an ‘underground box’ would cost an extra £5bn and lead to ‘huge disruption’, also stated that going underground was ‘not the right thing to do’, while asserting that a surface level turn-back facility was the way forward. READ MORE: London's £19bn Elizabeth line opens today - but where's the Crossrail for the North? It follows the release of the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan (IPR) in November, which along with a downgraded Northern Powerhouse Rail and HS2, also pointed to an overground station as the preferred option.