"The reason the Rochdale Canal was built in the 1790's was pretty simple - to the get things from A to B. It was the first major transport system to make its way into the city centre and with the world's first passenger railway station over on Liverpool Road at the Museum of Science and Industry, and the first canal coming into Castlefield Basin, it soon it became a hub for one of the most sophisticated rail, road, and water networks anywhere in the world - combined with our international airport, an integrated transport system before the phrase was invented..."