Manchester Piccadilly station has a new, light-up sculpture outside it, welcoming people to ‘MCR’.

The artwork is eight feet tall, and has been installed outside the station’s taxi rank on Fairfield Street, where it will welcome passengers in and out of the city.

There is also an important safety purpose behind the sculpture, which has been installed as one of several measures to protect passengers in busy pedestrian areas from vehicles mounting the footpath.

The design of the sculpture draws inspiration from industrial elements that are still present in Manchester Piccadilly station, and from historic trains.

By integrating these historical design elements with a modern lighting system, the MCR sculpture aims to “shine a new light on Manchester’s rich heritage”, according to Network Rail.

A bee statue named ‘Guardian’ has also been installed outside Manchester Piccadilly station. The sculpture was created by UK based artist movi_808, and also reflects the city’s industrial heritage. It continues the theme created by the existing honeybee sculptures in the city.

Manchester’s ‘worker bee’ is the city’s symbol, as represented in the ‘Bee Network‘ public transport system. The Network recently introduced combined bus and tram fares to save passengers money.

Like the MCR sculpture, the bee statue also functions as a barrier to stop vehicles entering the footpath. It has been installed on one of the station’s existing blocks.

“I’m so pleased to see the MCR sculpture installed outside of Manchester Piccadilly station. We’re proud to be a part of this city, and we take our responsibility to keep people safe extremely seriously.

“The sculpture is part of a wider project to keep passengers safer at our stations across the North West. We are always working to improve our station security, and the sculpture is part of a new, comprehensive line of defence to help people feel more secure when they’re out and about.”

Rebecca Rathore, Network Rail’s North West route strategy director