Great Western Coffee Shop

Denton or Reddish South?

Thank you for the photographs of Denton Station. 

Following on from the successful campaign to keep the two stations open, we have managed to establish a successful and thriving ^Friends of South Reddish Station^.  Tameside MBC has conducted a report looking into the possibility of some form of park and ride scheme at Denton Station and there was a commitment as part of the TIF bid for Greater Manchester for a strategic review into reopening the line fully for train services into Manchester Victoria.  Despite an 83% ^No^ vote in the referendum against the TIF bid ^ which was more to do with voting ^no^ to a congestion charge than transport investment ^ I^m urging transport bosses to continue with the review.

Separate to all this has been the interest of a private transport company called Tram Power, which has plans to possibly convert the line from South Reddish to Manchester Victoria to light rail and are currently in discussions with GMPTE regarding this.  The business case would rely on strategic park and ride at Denton and Ashton Moss, where there would be a new station, which roughly correspond with Junctions 23 and 24 of the M60.

So, as you can see, although there is nothing concrete and we are still served by a ^ghost^ train - which now runs on Fridays instead of Saturdays so we can^t run the popular folk train events where we were getting about 60-70 people travelling to Stalybridge Buffet Bar on a Saturday morning ^ there is an emphasis now on transport bosses looking at the line and stations seriously as a way of solving the area^s transport deficiencies.

So, as you can see, although there is nothing concrete and we are still served by a ^ghost^ train - which now runs on Fridays instead of Saturdays so we can^t run the popular folk train events where we were getting about 60-70 people travelling to Stalybridge Buffet Bar on a Saturday morning ^ there is an emphasis now on transport bosses looking at the line and stations seriously as a way of solving the area^s transport deficiencies.

Following on from the successful campaign to keep the two stations open, we have managed to establish a successful and thriving ‘Friends of South Reddish Station’. 

So, as you can see, although there is nothing concrete and we are still served by a ‘ghost’ train - which now runs on Fridays instead of Saturdays so we can’t run the popular folk train events where we were getting about 60-70 people travelling to Stalybridge Buffet Bar on a Saturday morning – there is an emphasis now on transport bosses looking at the line and stations seriously as a way of solving the area’s transport deficiencies.

Its a good idea, and it would be nice to get something like that up and running. It is also said that, as is the case with the Stockport-Stalybridge route, all the major players agree on the need for an appropriate TransWilts service.

However, what is happening there also acts as a warning.


So, a group was set up to promote even this most sparse of services, and finds a successful way of doing so. Then something rather strange happens.

The timings are moved from this:

Saturday Only - Stockport 1128, Reddish South 1132, Denton 1137, Guide Bridge 1142, Stalybridge 1148.

To this:

Friday only - Stockport 0922, Reddish South 0926, Denton 0931, Guide Bridge 0943, Stalybridge 0949.

Not only does this put the mockers on the folk train events, the service's only other real "flow" was from curious rail enthusiasts, and there has to be a possibility that both the move to Friday and the moving back of timings a couple of hours takes quite a few of them out of the equation as well.

Also, the poster at Denton station still advertises the Saturday service, which means that if you turn up there on a Saturday and trust it, then you'll have rather a long wait....

I believe that there is a term for actions like that.

what would happen if this train was full every week for 5 months?

That's a large part of the point. Friends of South Reddish Station tried to fill the Saturday only service through their folk train events. However, they feel that trying to get the same numbers using a Friday only service running a couple of hours earlier isnt feasible.

what would happen if this train was full every week for 5 months?

Is "use it or loose it" a convenient way to give the protestors about the service level something to do while the powers than be get on with doing what they really want anyway?

If a "use it or loose it" suggestion does actually result in a dramatically improved use of a service, is that in itself a bit of a nuisance to the powers that be, as they then have to take further steps to kill of the newly created traffic?

You can certainly see new traffic being killed off by the switch of day and time on the Stockport to Stalybridge service, and by the moving of the remaining TransWilts morning train even earlier than had been specified originally, to give commuters to Swindon an impractically long day there.

Stockport to Stalybridge and one train a week one way is a political ruse to prevent having to put up closure notices for Denton and Reddish South. I don't think DaFt expect anyone to travel on it. I believe when it was on Friday previously if you did turn up it more likely to be a taxi.