After our meeting with one of the

shortlisted companies for North-

ern Rail & Transpennine fran-

chises Arriva Trains, in Septem-

ber, the Friends of Reddish

South & Denton Stations

(FORSADS) campaign group has

been very active in representing

our campaign.

We met again with Arriva trains;

a day arranged by Railfuture for

discussions with Stakeholders

on 6th November. Noel, Dot,

Alan & Kim attended on behalf

of FORSADS. Noel has produced

another short report since ’Why

Not’ - published for the franchise

consultation– in which he has

presented an excellent busi-

ness case.

Arriva Stakeholder Manager

Katherine Miller, and Railfu-

ture representative Trevor

Bridge were interested in our

campaign. We were unusual in

that most other groups were

pressing for better rolling

stock and timetables, whereas

we said we would have any-

thing- including a Pacer- if it

meant we had a service! We

also have been contacted by

Go-Ahead for a meeting to be

scheduled in January 2015

and First Group, who are one

of the shortlisted companies

for the Transpennine Fran-

chise.

Railfuture are hoping to hold

further stakeholder days with

Govia & Abellio. We also had

an interesting meeting with

a n e n t e r p r i s e c a l l e d

‘Trampower’ who have plans

for a route to Sheffield as well

as our route (full story on p3)

BusinesName

The Friends of Reddish

South Station

Newsletter: Winter 2014

As you can see on

the map,(far left)

our line is fea-

tured, to it’s cur-

rent weekly desti-

nation, Staly-

bridge.

There is an under-

used line in exis-

tence that goes

into Manchester

Victoria, avoiding

Guide Bridge, Sta-

lybridge and

Ashton –u -Lyne

going via Ashton

Moss which could

be used for our

proposed, reintro-

duced regular

passenger service

Inside this

issue:

Hallowe’en Folk

Train

2

Trampower

meeting

3

Community rail

station adoption

day

4

SEMcrp meeting 5

Art Project at

Reddish South

5

Snippets & year

end round up

6

Pictured left, current routes for

Greater Manchester & beyond, run by

Northern Rail, including our ‘service’

running to Stalybridge

Pictured right the ‘East Manchester Corri-

dor, as proposed by The Friends Campaign

Group to take us to Manchester Victoria and

beyond to the North and Stockport to the

South

The Friends hold a ‘Ghost’ Folk Train on the

‘Hallowe’en Express’!

As it happened, Friday

31st October fell on a

Friday this year so we

were able, for the first

time, to have a proper

Ghost Train!

Our main concern was

that the Buffet Bar at

Stalybridge didn’t open

until 11am—but Caro-

line didn’t let us down

and generously offered

to open an hour early—

Dot & Kim volunteered

to take the breakfast

orders and everything

went almost like clock-

work!

Many thanks to

Caroline and the

staff who got up

extra early to

open for us but

also to Duggans

Greengrocers of

Heaton Chapel

who generously

donated some

sweet treats

from their

special ghostly

range!

Page 2 The Friends of Reddish South Station

Dot & Kim

dressed up and

ready to go!

Graham & Tom

enjoying the

local brew!

The guard at Stockport welcomed

everyone aboard the ‘Hallowe’en

Express’, we had a lot of passen-

gers enjoying the half term able to

join us, enjoying the odd ghoulish

treat on the way.

We were surprised and pleased

that Steve Magner and some col-

leagues from TfGM were able to

join us for the trip…...

…...and delighted that about 50

passengers boarded for the jour-

ney and once again we were well

entertained by Ged, Phil plus Mi-

chael for the journey and in the

Buffet Bar afterwards.

As you can see from the pictures a

good time was had by all!

Clock wise from top: Caroline and staff after

their early start, one young man and his skull!,

Kim & Dot with some of our young train spot-

ters, Ged, Phil & Michael; breakfast & music

being enjoyed at the buffet bar

FORSADS meet with Trampower

from Tameside.

We met with Lincoln and

Technical Expert Professor

Lewis Lesley. They have

been working towards run-

ning a tram in Preston and

had successful trials in

Blackpool until there was

an incident which left the

tram burnt out.

They have plans to run

trams to Sheffield using the

Woodhead tunnel, and use

Denton as a terminus for

that route; but also want to

run trams along our line

from Manchester Victoria

through to Altrincham with

a station at Cheadle and an

interchange at Baguley.

Our meeting ended by go-

ing onto Denton Station for

a site visit.

It sounds an exciting pro-

posal and we will keep you

updated with develop-

ments.

Trampower first became

known to us some time ago

when Andrew Gwynne MP

was contacted regarding

the possibility of using

trams or light rail on ‘our’

line for a regular passenger

service.

We were contacted again

via Andrew, by Lincoln

Shields, Business Develop-

ment Manager and we ar-

ranged a meeting for Octo-

ber.

Alan & Ann from Denton

were accompanied by Nigel

Gilmore, Head of Transport

Trampower have

plans to run

trams along our

line from

Manchester

Victoria through

to Altrincham

with a station at

Cheadle and an

interchange at

Baguley

Page 3 The Friends of Reddish South Station

Right on cue—a

train through

Denton Station!

Lincoln Shields

with Lewis

Lesley &

Ann Nunnerly

More Campaign News:(1)

Right: Noel, Ann, Alan (B), Dot, Lewis

Lesley, Alan (J), Lincoln Shields & Mar-

tin admire Denton’s new sign on the

platform

Apologies for the poor-

quality—but you can

make out the proposed

pathway for the East

Manchester Tramway

starting at Mcr Victoria

to Ashton-u -Lyne,

Denton, Reddish South,

Stockport, Cheadle,

Baguley, Navigation

Road & terminating at

Altrincham.

Dot & Alan were able to

accept an invitation by Net-

work Rail for a meeting &

lunch for Friends & Com-

munity Groups and an in-

formation exchange and

communication day.

The day was chaired by

Karen Hornby, who was

impressed by the turnout.

She explained that there

was now a new structure

within Network Rail, which

takes Friends & Community

Groups very seriously and

recognizes the sterling

work done by these groups.

Mike Franklin & his col-

league have now departed

and their places have been

taken by a new team who

feel they need to be more

proactive and liaise better

with the groups.

Other speakers included

British Transport Police,

who talked about commu-

nity policing and Janet

Clarke, Community Safety

Manager at Network Rail

who does presentations to

children and young people

making them aware of the

dangers of electrified lines.

Tom Carbery, Strategy &

Planning (North West) gave

an interesting talk about

his work gathering informa-

tion to inform viability of

lines, new lines, predicting

demand, options, leading

development, promoting

economic growth, route

studies for the long term

planning process. He re-

ceives information from a

number of sources for for-

ward planning.

This is extremely important

at a time when passenger

demand is rocketing and

services need to be effi-

cient and fit for purpose.

He emphasized the impor-

tance of consultation and

groups such as ours mak-

ing sure we have contrib-

uted during the franchise

period.

You will be pleased to hear

that Alan managed to collar

him and our reports are

winging their way to him as

we speak!

Matthew Worman Stake-

holder Manager from

Northern Rail gave back-

ground information about

Northern Rail, Station

Adopters & Friends groups.

Steve Magner from TfGM

spoke about Community

Rail & his colleague,

Amanda White is new to

the role and introduced

herself to the meeting and

said she would look for-

ward to getting to know us

all.

Brain Barnsley from the

Association of Community

Rail Partnerships (ACoRP)

gave a general background

to the association and said

that the website which is

very much out of date is

finally going to be updated.

The ACoRP awards catego-

ries are changing and sug-

gestions are welcome.

A document called ‘The

Value of Community Rail

Volunteering’ is due for

release in January 2015

putting financial worth to

our contributions.

Finally Simon Hankin, De-

partment for Transport)

said the minister responsi-

ble for Community rail is

Baroness Kramer—she also

has responsibilities for

HS2.

Alan & Dot reported that it

was a lively meeting with

plenty of contributions from

the floor!

There was quite a lot of

cynicism & frustration from

the seasoned community

members: unhappiness

regarding Northern’s peak

time ticketing changes, the

difficulty of contacting Sta-

tion Adopters when in a

Community Group (from

personal experience, the

identity of Station Adopters

is guarded better than if

they were MI6 agents!), the

difficulty of communication

across and between differ-

ent groups/departments/

organizations.

Everyone felt that such an

open forum had been ex-

tremely useful and asked if

there could be more of a

frank exchange of views.

Karen Hornby agreed with

this and said that this was

the first of them, and prom-

ised more.

Campaign News (3):

Community Rail Station Adoption Day

Alan & Dot

reported that it

was a lively

meeting with

plenty of

contributions

from the floor!

Page 4 The Friends of Reddish South Station

.....there was

now a new

structure within

Network Rail

which takes

Friends & Com-

munity Groups

very seriously

and recognises

the sterling

work done by

these groups

The regular meeting of the

South East Manchester

community rail partnership

met in November. The

main part of the meeting

was taken up with the Fran-

chise and our contributions

to the consultation process.

There was a presentation

by Neil Williams of Glos-

sop. TfGM are keen to

have tram trains operating

on their route, which as

Neil pointed out is a retro-

grade step as their current

train service is superior to

the rest of SE Manchester.

He also talked about im-

proving station interest with

information boards about

the route and history.

The Friends of Reddish

South had the opportunity

to tell the meeting of our

meetings and progress .

SEMcrp have made a con-

tribution to the consultation

process including support

for our campaign.

Once again we are up there

with the rest of the groups

regarding volunteer hours

so well done everyone who

has participated. Not bad

for a group without a ser-

vice!

The next meeting is in Janu-

ary—incidentally if anyone

is interested a SEMcrp

website is being set up

regarding community rail

activity in our area.

SEMcrp meeting

Reddish South Station platform art project

the opportunity to do so.

It will take the form of a

competition with five final-

ists and one winner from

each participating school.

We have already contacted

the schools and the re-

sponse has been very fa-

vourable so far. We are

hoping to meet with them

early in the new year to

discuss details.

We have also enlisted Arts

for Recovery in the Commu-

nity (ARC) once more after

the excellent work with the

mural on the platform. Jac-

qui Wood, ARC co-ordinator

has agreed to be a judge

and will also display some

of the art work.

Matthew Worman, Stake-

holder Manager at North-

ern Rail has also graciously

agreed to be a judge.

We are anticipating that the

winners will be presented

with their prizes and see

their work displayed on the

station platform at the

Reddfest Arts Festival in

June next year.

We are also hoping, (but

don’t mention it yet as we

haven’t asked him!), that

Andrew Gwynne MP will be

on hand to present the

prizes.

Watch this space—we will

keep you updated as to

progress.

FORSS are delighted to

announce that we have

applied for and been

granted funding for an art

project proposed to begin

early next year.

We have wanted to do a

project involving local pri-

mary schools for some time

and thanks to Heatons &

Reddish Community Fund

and ACoRP we now have

We are hoping

the winners will

be presented

with their prizes

and see their

work displayed

on the station

platform at the

Reddfest Arts

Festival in June

next year

Page 5 The Friends of Reddish South Station

The Station platform—still looking good in the Autumn sunshine

Congratulations to Friend Graham Smith, who, as we go to ’press’ tops the Fantasy Football League. The top four have

quite a lead on the rest of us but a lot can happen between now and May (we hope!)

Congratulations also to Friend & committee member Alan Burrows, who having been made redundant in February this

year begins a new job in January 2015.

DON’T FORGET ITS MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL TIME—MEMBERSHIP FORM ENCLOSED/ATTACHED—OBVIOUSLY LIFE MEM-

BERS NEED NOT APPLY BUT ANY EXTRA CONTRIBUTIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED!!

Well, its the end of another year (where did it go?) and once again it has been eventful and busy.

Our Macmillan ‘Biggest Coffee Morning’ was our most successful ever and our Good Friday Folk

Train this year the best attended. We now know who the shortlisted companies are for the

franchises and we will be expecting to continue lobbying again for most of next year. We already

are planning to attend the next full Council meeting and you can be sure we will be pursuing our

campaign whenever we can.

We must also thank the following people & organisations for their unstinting support, assistance,

encouragement & fundraising during 2014:

As ever, Andrew Gwynne MP & Allison Gwynne

To Noel from the rest of us—thanks for all the hard work on the campaign

Stockport & Tameside Councils—especially Tom, Walter, Kate & David

Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce

Northern Rail– notably Matthew Worman

Railfuture (North West Branch)

Network Rail

SEMcrp

Steve Magner

Terry Rourke– thanks for everything for Macmillan

Craig Wright, Rose Hill & Reddish Vale for the apples!

Heatons & Reddish Community Funding & ACoRP for providing the financial support for the

2015 art project

Jacqui Wood & ARC

Stalybridge Buffet Bar

Ged & Phil

Retrorail—many thanks for 2 fantastic excursions, picking us up & dropping us off !

Dixe Wills & Simply Books of Bramhall

Sharon & staff at Sykes Cafe

Stockport Labour Club

The community of Reddish and beyond, particularly each & every member of FORSS, for your

support, presence & generosity throughout this year.

Tom, Martin, Dot, Noel, Kim, Dave & Alan wish you a very Happy Christmas and a successful and

peaceful New Year.

Snippets:…………. The Friends of Reddish South Station