Latest News
July 2010
The weekend of the 19th/20th June was a momentous time for the “Friends” group as we started the clean and clear up of the station. Adrian Barkley area station manager for Northern rail enrolled the help of Paul McCunnell from ISS. Between them they organised men and equipment to cut back the overgrown trees. The station was painted and the station signs refreshed. Brian Pendlebury organised 2 youth offending service teams. “Friends” volunteers helped, and then later joined our stand at the Folk Day in Reddish Vale. Our aim is to continue the clean up and have volunteer working parties at regular intervals. We have applied to the Manchester Airport Community Trust Fund for a grant to help with the cost of tools and equipment for the continuation of the clear up.
The “Friends” group welcome new members. Our next meeting is Wednesday 14th July at Stockport Labour Club at 7.30pm. Our stand will also be at South Reddish Park open day on July 17th.
May 2010
FORSS A.G.M. 19th May 2010.
After a well attended agm we have now got a date/weekend for our Station
Clean up. Adrian Barkley our Station Manager brought along Paul McCunnell
ISS facilities area service manager for Manchester and Liverpool. The outcome
was that Paul has offered us 3 men and cutting equipment for the weekend
19th/20th June. We are having a meeting with them on Thursday 27th May.
On the 19th June we are attending Reddish Vale Folk Day with our FORSS stand.
So its going to be a busy weekend. Our next Forss meeting is on Wednesday
2nd June at Stockport Labour Club.
A big thank you to Adrian, Paul and Northern rail for working together and
with us.
The "Friends" group (FORSS) are applying for a Manchester Airport
Community Trust Fund grant for several hundred pounds towards the cost of
clearing , cleaning and onward maintainance of Reddish South Station. We
hope to tidy up and to preserve the almost derelict site for future generations
because of course our ultimate aim is also to get proper functional passenger
services started from Reddish South and Denton to Manchester Victoria.
The ammount of the grant to be applied for has not yet been calculated ,
or decided on, but basically it will be towards the cost of tools and materials
to begin a clear up, and to maintain the site as a clean tidy and functional
railway station. Watch this "NEWS" space for more details as they
emerge.
August 2009
The "Scarborough Flyer" steam excursion arrives at the east coast resort with "Friends" members Dave and Dot on board.
Pacific 4-6-2 6233 Duchess of Sutherland steams through Reddish South Station on the newly laid track Fri 14th August, with the "Scarborough Flyer". This is one of The Railway Touring Company's series of August railtours that pick up passengers at Stockport. These steam railtours have been extended into September because of high demand , some go to Carlisle and some go to Scarborough.
Cllr Walter Brett welcomes Stockport's deputy Mayor and Mayoress, Cllrs Stuart and Christine Corris to the South Reddish Park Open Day on Sat 8th August. It was very pleasing to note that along with many other visitors to our stall, both Deputy Mayor and Mayoress Corris signed our petition and gave their backing to our campaign for passenger rail services from Reddish South Station. We Thank them, and all the other visitors for their support.
The Friends Group were on the Station this morning Fri 31st July, to wave through the first of the weekly "Scarborough Flyers" starting from Crewe . This mornings loco was Coronation class 4-6-2 pacific. 6233 Duchess of Sutherland. There will be different locos each week on this service.
July 2009
A reasonably well attended meeting last night of the "Friends of Reddish South " group decided that FRIDAY AUGUST 28th will be the date of the next Folk Train Special to the buffet bar at Stalybridge. Both Northern Rail and the people at the buffet bar will be notified of our event to make sure that the train will actually run and that enough breakfasts can be organised! The train leaves Reddish South at approx 09:30.
It was also decided to attend two Community day events in Reddish in August
to get more publicity for the campaign. These will be on Saturday Aug 8th
from 12:00 noon till 4:00pm at South Reddish Park on Greg St Reddish, and
the other on Sat 22nd Aug from 12:00 noon until 4:00pm at the small park
on Reddish Road opposite Bargain Booze. This is on the left, just past the
petrol station on Reddish Rd as you go towards Stockport from the Station.
Member Noel has obtained some great fridge magnets like small replica station totem signs, of Reddish South, Denton and Heaton Chapel, which can be sold at the community open day events for group funds. They are great little fridge magnets and should bring in some much needed cash. Member Martin then went on to tell us of their great day out to York courtesy of Northern Rail when many different "Friends of ---- station " groups were invited out in appreciation of all the voluntary work that is done at many stations in the area. Martin said that the food , drink and splendid day at the Railway Museum at York, was all enjoyed by everyone and very much appreciated. Well done NORTHERN RAIL. The actual train was incidentally the first RETURN passenger service out, and back to Reddish South Station for 18 years.
The meeting then heard that a station clean up could possibly be arranged
for mid-October, but permission and health and safety issues still have
to be finalised. Whenever it can be finalised it will be most welcome as
the Station is rather tatty at the moment.
Finally a provisional date of Sept 9th has been pencilled in for the next "Friends" group meeting , again at the Labour Club in Heaton Chapel.
June Track Work
June has seen a multi - million pound up-grade and new track laying scheme put into place right through Reddish South Station and beyond. Babcock Rail have ripped out all the old track and for several months now have been dropping off thousands of tons of new ballast at the side of the track in preparation for the major works commencing in early June. Teams of men have been working around the clock all this week removing all the old ballast and taking up all the old rails. Then working through the night special rail replacement trains were brought in to lay the brand new track that can be seen on these first few pictures. After that special ballast and track tamping machines slowly went along the new track to spread and level the ballast and to bed in the track. Despite once being told that this route was being shut down and mothballed, it can quite clearly be seen that all this expensive and vital work has been done as an investment to ensure that this vital rail artery is kept in tip-top condition. Therefore we must keep up the pressure on Northern Rail to open the line not just to all the various freight services but to passengers into and out of Manchester Victoria. The latest excuse from Northern Rail is that such a service would not be economically viable, yet they turn off their passengers at Stockport and force them to change trains for onward travel to Picaddilly. Why not allow them to stay on the trains, then pick up even more passengers at Reddish South and Denton and take them all to Victoria where most of them want to go anyway. Please write to the Manager of Northern Rail Mrs Kirsty Mottram and tell her that we want and need this service now and that it would be economically viable because hundreds of us would support it. !
New Friends Promotional Banner Introduced
The banner was made by Barclay Signs at the corner of Woodhall Road Reddish and we think they have made a great job of it. We are going to use it when the Friends of Reddish South group join other Friends groups on a trip to York. The train will be stopping at Reddish South Station on Sunday 14th June to pick them up, so the friends will be there with the banner to wave them off. Barclay signs used the photos off the web site because they were so good.
Recently the "Network Rail" track measurement and calibration train passed through Reddish South. It was seen passing the station and the pile of new ballast which has been placed there in preparation for the big track re-newal scheme being done in June.This multi-million pound scheme will see a few miles of brand new track being laid through Reddish South on this vital rail artery for Network Rail, and that shows that we must all keep pressing for a new passenger service along the line which was at one stage earmarked for complete closure. There are now several services every day which terminate at Stockport and then run empty through Reddish South and Denton and it is an almost insane and ludicrous waste of resources as to why these empty trains cannot be used for passengers to Manchester Victoria.
Also anyone can see empty diesel passenger trains,passing through Reddish South, both morning and evening going to/from Manchester Victoria which we are told cannot be used for passenger services as it "would not be economically viable" If they are empty, and we want to fill them, how can that not be economically viable.
Friends of Reddish South.
Friends in the Media.
A couple of articles from the local media and the Labour door flyer documenting the timetable changes.
Also a link spotted on the home MSM website counting down the top 10 "Whats the Point" - Denton station comes in at number 4! The picture is not of Denton (it looks like an Australian station?), but its some publicity!
http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/lists/?article=PointlessDenton
Folk Train 4
After our very successful third Folk Train on Good Friday, it was agreed that we would look to run a fourth on Friday 28th August. We just need to check with Northern Rail that it won’t change the day it runs when the train timetable changes in May.
Next Friends Meeting -
Our next meeting is at 7-30pm Wednesday May 20th at the Labour Club Lloyd Street Heaton Norris Stockport.
All Welcome.
The New 2009 Timetable - Issued
The timetable has been released for the line for 2009. The once a week, one way, train remains. However the key change is that the service now runs on a Friday morning. Sadly this means the very popular "Folk Train" specials will not be able to run. This is a blow to the group as this activity raised support and visability of the need for a regular service on the route.
Watch this pace for further updates.
See below for a picture of the timetable at Reddish South:
Reddish South Station and the "impossible junction at Heaton Norris"
We keep being told that the junction at Heaton Norris has no capacity to allow any extra trains and that it is impossible to run any more services through it, but this week-end again showed that as well as all the normal freight trains that use this very busy line there were three more special excursions through Reddish South. The first two on Saturday were diesel hauled and "Friends" members Dave and Dot Ashworth were on one of them which was the Compass Tours Stratford -on-Avon Shakespear Special.. The other was a Carlisle bound diesel special starting in the midlands.
Then on Sunday morning and watched by about 10 or 12 people on the steps,
bridge and platform of Reddish South, the steam hauled "Buxton Spa
Express" came steaming through spot on time at 11:20am. This originated
at Manchester Victoria and used the exact same route that we want to re-ope!
n for passenger commuter services. The steam special ran through Stockport
and Hazel Grove up to Buxton and returned via New Mills Romiley Hyde Guide
Bridge and Ashburys, before turning to Miles Platting and into Manchester
Victoria. It was hauled by Class 5 "Black 5" 45407 which is based
at Bury on the East Lancashire Railway.
This continuous parade of special excursions along with of course all the
regular freight and infrastructure trains shows that the junction at Heaton
Norris is not "Full" or "Impossible to pass through"
as we keep being told by Network Rail, GMPTE and Northern rail and we must
continue to press for new passenger commuter services to Manchester Victoria.
Friends of Reddish South Station.
"Friends" secretary Kim Burrows, MP for Denton and Reddish Andrew Gwynne, and treasurer Dot Ashworth pose infront of the "Friends" display at the open day of the centenery of Reddish Community Centre, Library and Baths building on Sat 24th May.
Over 140 people signed our petition of support for new passenger rail services from Reddish South, and several more took membership forms for the society at the open day and it was agreed by all that it was avery succesful day in making many more people aware of our campaign. Not one single word of opposition was heard to our quest and in fact many people expressed the opinion that the road traffic congestion in Reddish was rapidly getting worse due to the lack of, and removal of the old bus lay-byes. "Friends of Reddish South Station"
Many Thanks to all in the "Friends" group who supported the open
day and who provided pictures , maps and memorobilia, and of course their
valuable time on Saturday.
A couple more pictures from the day:
The Friends will have a display at the Reddish Community Centre Silver Jubilee celebrations on Saturday 24th May starting at 10am. Please visit and come along to the display.
The Library, Fire Station and Swimming Baths opened on 1908 - the library is still in use, the fire station is now the community centre, sadly the baths closed a few years ago and lay abandoned. It is located on Gorton road, 2 minutes from Houldsworth Sq.
The next meeting for the Friends is on Wednesday 30th April 7:30 pm at the Bairstow Club. Please come along and support the group. We are hoping that by then we will have got a date sorted for a Spring Clean of the Station
Our new logo is launched - Thanks to the GMPTE who have designed and produced a logo for us, which is in line with other "Friends" organisations in the area.
Above: Taken from the Stockport Express. Wed January 23rd 2008.
Below: A Press Release taken from the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce (Stockport):
PRESS RELEASE 15/01/2008
Chamber Joins Campaign to Reopen Reddish South Station
Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce has lent its support to the campaign to reopen Reddish South Station.
Paul Kirkham, Stockport Local Manager at the Chamber, said: “The rush hour traffic through Reddish gets worse every year. The only choice many local commuters have is the car or the bus, so either way they are stuck in the same gridlock.
“It’s highly unlikely that the Metrolink will ever come to Reddish so reopening the station is the only answer to the town’s transport problems.”
Reddish South Station is currently served by one train a week travelling in one direction.
Paul said: “The station and the line are already in place, so all we need are some trains. A regular train service to Manchester would make commuting into the city centre easier, cut congestion and make Reddish a more attractive place for businesses.”
ENDS
For more information contact Simon Cronin, Press and PR Officer at Greater
Manchester Chamber, on 0161 237 4226.