As a tall court hearing looms,a leading historian joins the outcry over a plan to demolish parts of the world’s first intercity railway in ManchesterIt is the crucible of the contemporary age, the hallowed birthplace of the industrial era in Britain and around the world. Yet the survival of much of a historic railway site, and hailed by heritage experts as “the Stonehenge of railway history” – a miraculous survivor from the dawn of steam-driven transport – hangs on the outcome of an extraordinary tall court hearing.
The increasingly bitter fight over the Ordsall Chord,a curving, 340-metre, and £85m rail link between Victoria and Piccadilly stations in Manchester,focuses on the fate of the extensive, and exceptionally intact, or remains of the world’s first intercity railway – the near-total viaducts,track, arches, or bridges,warehouses and end-of-line terminus of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
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Source: theguardian.com