Adequate waiting room at Manchester Victoria

[faltskog36abba]

It doesn't have the importance of Piccadilly - no London trains, no cross country from the South, no Scottish services - but it's still an key node for TransPennine which aren't just turn up and go trains.

I would say a Transpennine train running at 15 minute intervals, Is a turn up and go service- Especially for Huddersfield and Leeds.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I would say a Transpennine train running at 15 minute intervals, Is a turn up and go service- Especially for Huddersfield and Leeds.

The frequency is, but the number of people on Advance fares means most people are after a specific train. Victoria certainly justifies better facilities.

 

[xotGD]

I would say a Transpennine train running at 15 minute intervals, Is a turn up and go service- Especially for Huddersfield and Leeds.

Certainly not for Hull or stations beyond York.

 

[Bantamzen]

I would say a Transpennine train running at 15 minute intervals, Is a turn up and go service- Especially for Huddersfield and Leeds.

When it can take 15 minutes to coax the QR code readers to accept your e-ticket, there's no such thing as turn up and go...

The frequency is, but the number of people on Advance fares means most people are after a specific train. Victoria certainly justifies better facilities.

Indeed, a lot of TPE passengers are on advance tickets. And even though when I'm travelling through on a Football Saturday with an off-peak return, I never leave arriving for an intended service until the last minute, trains can get really busy when things go pointy bits up or there's TRU work taking place.

 

[Efini92]

There aren't but there is usually a manual check to get to the bridge.

I seem to recall there is a sneaky way to bypass the gateline (which I won't post, partly because it is not helpful to have it public, and partly because I just know of it and haven't used it) in some circumstances, though. I expect they very occasionally block it and prosecute people like they do with the similar one at Victoria though.

There is when it works, but like the travelators, it always seems to be broken.

 

[M60lad]

I know people are commenting on Trans Pennine Express using Victoria but what you've got to remember is that the only or one of the reasons why Trans Pennine Express use Victoria rather than Piccadilly these days is so that they are not crossing the throat of Piccadilly to/from Platform 13/14 which is what they used to in the past.

The only Trans Pennine Express's that use Piccadilly now are the Manchester Airport's which arrive via Victoria and the terminating services via Stalybridge.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The only Trans Pennine Express's that use Piccadilly now are the Manchester Airport's which arrive via Victoria and the terminating services via Stalybridge.

Don't TPE services between Cleethorpes and Liverpool Lime Street not use Manchester Piccadilly? Moot point as to whether using platforms 13/14 at Man Piccadilly is a superior experience for passengers than, say, platforms 3/4 at Manchester Victoria.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Don't TPE services between Cleethorpes and Liverpool Lime Street not use Manchester Piccadilly? Moot point as to whether using platforms 13/14 at Man Piccadilly is a superior experience for passengers than, say, platforms 3/4 at Manchester Victoria.

Both are probably equally grim in their own ways, but at least Piccadilly has decent general facilities.

 

[M60lad]

Yes the Cleethorpes services do use Piccadilly but they don't have to cross the throat of Piccadilly to get over to Ardwick, all you need is something that is due to cross the throat to be late and it used to delay other services using Piccadilly.

 

[Ant158]

Don't TPE services between Cleethorpes and Liverpool Lime Street not use Manchester Piccadilly? Moot point as to whether using platforms 13/14 at Man Piccadilly is a superior experience for passengers than, say, platforms 3/4 at Manchester Victoria.

There are also the Scottish Transpennine services from Piccadilly that don’t serve Victoria

 

[Tezza1978]

Facilities aren't good enough at Victoria. Headed there today as had a meeting in Salford this afternoon and all toilets (the only set available) fenced off as "out of order". Simply not good enough for a station of this size.

 

[Foxcover]

Facilities aren't good enough at Victoria. Headed there today as had a meeting in Salford this afternoon and all toilets (the only set available) fenced off as "out of order". Simply not good enough for a station of this size.

Generally it’s getting that ‘don’t care’ feel it used to have. I nearly missed a Liverpool-bound train twice there recently
- one a few weeks ago when the usual unhelpful gateline attendant refused to let me through with a paper *open* return ticket (issued earlier that day on the Wrexham to Bidston train) that unusually had printed ‘Manchester Piccadilly‘, insisting there was no such thing as ‘Manchester stations’ as a group.**
- and then yesterday when both the ticket collection machines were out of order - the same helpful gateline attendant told me to buy another online ticket - until another member of staff took us to another (unsignposted) working machine by the Greggs outlet.
**this was only resolved when the barrier finally recognised the ticket on about the tenth swipe. ‘There’ I said “You see? It’s valid‘. ‘No it’s not‘ he replied. ‘It says Piccadilly. Not Victoria.’

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 May 2026 ==

I agree - the difference in the ambience/competence/helpfulness of the TPE onboard environment and the Victoria station environment you disembark into is stark. It’s just unprofessional and unhelpful the moment ypu hit the platform, with few exceptions. I’ve said here before that Northern shouldn’t be managing a station of this size - they don’t care, it shows, and people deserve better. And the sooner they sort out the gateline customer support the better.

 

[Bletchleyite]

To be fair a ticket from Manchester Piccadilly isn't valid from Victoria unless it permitted break of journey and had a permitted route from Piccadilly via the Ordsall Chord. A Manchester Stations ticket would say that. What exactly was it? Probably issued in error, but I don't think the gateline staff can be blamed for that, it should probably have been queried at the time of issue.

 

[Foxcover]

To be fair a ticket from Manchester Piccadilly isn't valid from Victoria unless it permitted break of journey and had a permitted route from Piccadilly via the Ordsall Chord. A Manchester Stations ticket would say that. What exactly was it? Probably issued in error, but I don't think the gateline staff can be blamed for that, it should probably have been queried at the time of issue.

It was an open return Neston-Manchester, issued by the guard on the Wrexham-Bidston - a journey that would have been issued from a ticket office as ‘Manchester stations’ so not sure why it said Piccadilly.

At Victoria the gateline attendant sent me to the ticket office to confirm what he was saying.

The ticket clerk read the ticket, shook his head and said ‘why isn’t he accepting it, it’s valid at Victoria too. Go and tell him I told you that.’ So I returned, the attendant said ‘well he’s wrong’, and at that point I tried a final scan and the barrier opened.

Just to clarify it was an open return, not an advance - in which case I agree it would not have been valid.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 May 2026 ==

It was an open return Neston-Manchester, issued by the guard on the Wrexham-Bidston - a journey that would have been issued from a ticket office as ‘Manchester stations’ so not sure why it said Piccadilly.

At Victoria the gateline attendant sent me to the ticket office to confirm what he was saying.

The ticket clerk read the ticket, shook his head and said ‘why isn’t he accepting it, it’s valid at Victoria too. Go and tell him I told you that.’ So I returned, the attendant said ‘well he’s wrong’, and at that point I tried a final scan and the barrier opened.

Just to clarify it was an open return, not an advance - in which case I agree it would not have been valid.

is it the case though that an open return to a Manchester station is not valid at another in the group? That goes against everything I understood and I grew up in Manchester!

 

[Bletchleyite]

It was an open return Neston-Manchester, issued by the guard on the Wrexham-Bidston - a journey that would have been issued from a ticket office as ‘Manchester stations’ so not sure why it said Piccadilly.

At Victoria the gateline attendant sent me to the ticket office to confirm what he was saying.

The ticket clerk read the ticket, shook his head and said ‘why isn’t he accepting it, it’s valid at Victoria too. Go and tell him I told you that.’ So I returned, the attendant said ‘well he’s wrong’, and at that point I tried a final scan and the barrier opened.

Just to clarify it was an open return, not an advance - in which case I agree it would not have been valid.

I've just checked brfares.com and for some reason there are duplicated fares on that flow, some to Manchester Piccadilly and some to Manchester Stns. This is plainly silly as they are the same price, but does mean your ticket was not strictly actually valid at Vic (unless there was a permitted route via Vic, as I note above).

The bookings office could however have endorsed it with a stamp and given it any validity they liked. Goodness knows why they did otherwise.

This really should be fixed. Perhaps a pricing manager reading here can do that for us!

 

[cool110]

The gateline can't be that bad of a problem, if it was we would see more people bypassing it by running over the tracks between P1 and the tram platforms.

 

[Kilopylae]

There are Coffee shops as well as the Beer House to keep warm, Simply buy a coffee and wait for the train

I shouldn't need to!! Having paid for a ticket, it's not unreasonable to expect a shelter shielded from the cold to be included in the cost at a major terminus.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The gateline can't be that bad of a problem, if it was we would see more people bypassing it by running over the tracks between P1 and the tram platforms.

I don't think it is any worse than Picc in staffing terms, and certainly better than Avanti at Euston. The issue I more have with it is the way it is such a prominent feature in the station which helps give it the oppressive atmosphere I find the station to have.