Manchester Airport train station to Terminal 3

melb

hi all just thought I would ask your advice here before I book my rail tickets. We are flying with Ryanair (I understand they use Terminal 3) and I wondered if anyone who had done this recently could give me an idea of how much time I should allow? I'm thinking of getting a train that gets in at 9.10 am for example for a flight that leaves at 10.40 am. We are handluggage only and usually arrive 90 minutes before our flight leaves but have never used public transport before. thanks

Alan_Bowen

1040 shouldn't be a peak departure time, security has improved in T3 recently, it was a zoo at the beginning of July. T3 is as far away from the station as possible, the closest is T2, then T1 and finally T3. I would allow 10 minutes assuming the travellators are working, they frequently aren't. Assuming your train is on time, you should be at the terminal by 0925, when you arrive assuming you have printed off your boarding cards you only have security to contend with, that should not take more than 15 minutes and you then have plenty of time to do whatever you want to do. Ryanair flights leave from gates 50-53 generally but the US flights leave mid morning and sometimes take the gates so keep a watch. Ryanair does not waste time, they turn the planes around in 25 minutes, no airbridges, you walk down the stairs and across the tarmac to the plane.

The only risk is that your train is delayed or cancelled. How far have you to travel, is there another train that would get there before 1000? How much earlier is the previous train?

melb

thanks very much for that very detailed reply. We are travelling from Leeds and the trains are every 30 minutes. We could get the earlier one but it's about 7.30 and the next one after ours would get in before 10 so should be OK. I have seen on Transpennine website that for the return journey if the flight is delayed you can change your train time up to 3 hours later for no charge which I think is great. Also we can change trains for a later one for a fee so on the way back the I'm allowing 50 minutes from landing time to catching the train (no luggage to collect). Am hoping using the train will be a lot more stress free than driving to the airport and parking up - haven't used Manchester for years but i remember getting lost last time! thanks again

Alan_Bowen

It should be better than battling the M62/M60 route which is bad at the best of times. Might be worth checking on the https://www.nationalrail.co.uk website for a few days to see whether the train is regularly on time. I use Transpennine but further east and as a rule they are reasonably reliable but you will be passing through Manchester at peak period so might be worth checking. With no check in necessary, if the train is on time, you should have no problems at all