The use of glass in buildings is often associated with modern skyscrapers, out in the open air, allowing lots of natural light into buildings. But glass can be equally useful in allowing artificial light to penetrate deeper in underground settings.

An example of where this can be very useful is in underground stations, where such glass can act as a barrier where appropriate, such as between areas on either side of a ticket barrier, while allowing more light through and increasing visibility and navigational ease for passengers.

Such internal glass partitions can be seen on underground metro systems such as the Tube and the Glasgow Subway, but may also be added to new underground stations, including the first one to be built in Manchester.

As the Manchester Evening News reports, the city could be about to get its first underground station, not as part of a Tube-style network, but as a new hub on a proposed high-speed rail link to Liverpool, an idea being promoted heavily by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and his Liverpool City Region counterpart Steve Rotherham.

Because the scale would be so much greater than a local metro station, the need for substantial barriers will be greater, which is where the extensive use of glass to aid the flow of light and passenger navigation could be invaluable.

There would be significant refurbishment at all the existing stations along the route, while a new ‘Liverpool Gateway’ station would also be built. The plan also includes increasing capacity at Lime Street (which already has an underground section) and nearby Liverpool Central, the busiest ‘underground’ station outside London.

In common with the Elizabeth line and the mainline rail stations running through Glasgow (which are separate from the Subway), Liverpool’s six subterranean Merseyrail stations do not count as an underground metro system in the way the Tube does.

However, this distinction may do little to alter the clear benefits that can be provided by glass partitions, making these 21st-century underground stations modern and user-friendly for the passengers who will benefit from this major investment in infrastructure and economic growth.