1d for a platform ticket. Busy place in the 60's. Boasted the longest platform, running from Victoria Stn. to Exchange Stn. Remnants of it still remain although the station itself has long gone.Happy days.Major restoration underway.
Stuart.

It is a shame that once one of the biggest stations outside London with (I think) 18 platforms is now reduced to four platforms and two short bay platforms. It has desperately needed rebuilding for the past 40 years. The biggest mistake was putting a building over the station which left it a gloomy hole even worse than Birmingham New Street.

I remember going into a refreshment room somewhere on the Western (addled brain means I can't remember the location) and it was great; carved wood everywhere, wooden tables & chairs, full of atmosphere. On returning a few years later the place had been gutted and it was like walking into an slot machine arcade, that sort of atmosphere, red & yellow plastic everywhere, awful. It could've been Newton Abbot but not sure.

You can partially blame the building over the station on Manchester's two failed Olympic bids. When the city went for the 1996 games they had no venues only
plans and sites, something the committee picked up on. So they decided that before the bid for the 2000 games they would build the arena next to and over the then under used Vic, therefore giving Manchester an all purpose stadium within the city and with its own transport links.

Cheers John