****MEDIA INVITE**** Rail industry joins Rail Minster to travel across the Ordsall Chord**** MEDIA INVITE****

Rail Minster Paul Maynard MP will be joining Northern and colleagues from the rail industry to travel across the Ordsall Chord on its first day of operation – Sunday, 10 December.

Media are invited to attend the event – to be hosted at Manchester Victoria – to mark the opening, with opportunities to interview Mr Maynard as well as dignitaries, including David Brown (Managing Director of Northern) and Martin Frobisher (Route Managing Director for Network Rail). Members of the press will also be given the chance to travel alongside VIPs on one of the first trains to cross the iconic bridge.

The Ordsall Chord, a centrepiece of the Great North Rail Project, connects north and south Manchester and, on Sunday, will see customers cross for the first time.

It is a key link in the modernisation of rail services in the north of England and will enable Northern’s customers to travel from West Yorkshire, through the Calder Valley, direct to Manchester Oxford Road.