The Ordsall Chord / Castlefield Chord , short railway line connecting Victoria & Oxford Road, Water St, Salford, England, UK, M3 5FY

Ordsall Chord, also known as the Castlefield Curve, is a short railway line in Ordsall, Salford, England, which links Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Oxford Road to Manchester Victoria, designed to increase capacity and reduce journey times into and through Manchester. It allows trains to run from Leeds, Newcastle and Redcar Central direct to Manchester Airport. A chord was proposed in the late-1970s and parliamentary powers for its construction were received in 1979, but the project was cancelled. Network Rail revived the proposal in 2010 as part of its Northern Hub proposal. Funding for its construction totalling £85 million was announced in the 2011 United Kingdom budget and construction commenced in 2016. It became operational on 10 December 2017. However its use since becoming operational has been limited as no additional capacity at Victoria, Oxford Road and Piccadilly has been built to cope with more through services The first passenger service was at 08:40 on 10 December 2017: Manchester Victoria to Manchester Oxford Road followed by the return service continuing to Leeds. It was envisaged that congestion at Manchester Piccadilly would reduce by a quarter, in part due to the reduced need for trains to cross the throat of the station, blocking other services. It was hoped there would be more frequent train services through Manchester. However this has not yet materialised, particularly after the May 2018 timetable which created widespread disruption around Manchester. The Ordsall Chord's lack of use in comparison to its £100 million cost has been attributed to a lack of capacity at Piccadilly, Oxford Road and Victoria to cope with increased 'through' services that the Chord generates. Chief Executive of Network Rail, Andrew Haines, remarked upon the inadequacies of the infrastructure to support the Ordsall Chord as part of a review in Network Rail's operations: