The Friends of Reddish South Station Newsletter Autumn 2014 ‘The Biggest Cof- Rourke’s Graft! fee Morning in the World’ is in aid of Terry retires from fundraising on a high raising funds for Macmillan Cancer after raising a magnificent £300 Support. of the £500 total for our Macmillan event It is an event we supported from the beginning because everyone in some way has been touched by Terry said he cancer and this took up the chal- charity does its lenge to beat utmost to relieve our 2013 Mac- the suffering and millan total in worry of cancer January this sufferers and their year and he families in their ’would retire darkest days. from my fund raising with a We are immensely bang!’ proud of Reddish generosity, espe- cially in these straightened times. Terry presents the cheque for £300 to FORSS Treasurer Dot Ashworth Inside this issue: Friend Terry Rourke, local residents (again!) be available as our champion magnet seller which hopefully will be a bit less arduous! who has tirelessly fund- as well as some visi- Macmillan ‘Biggest 2 raised for our ‘Biggest tors from further afield. Coffee Morning in the Coffee Morning in the To raise £200 on the Below is Terry with Dave Ashworth who was his last prize winner on the Coffee Morning. World’ event in aid of day is also a record for Campaign News 4 There are more pictures of our biggest station Macmillan Cancer Sup- us and Terry’s contribu- event of the year on pages 2 & 3. Retrorail Excursion to 6 port for the last 3 tion is deeply appreci- Stratford –on –Avon years, has decided to ated and we cannot Heritage Day 8 retire at the top of his thank him enough. game after raising an Rose Hill & crab apple 8 jelly amazing £300 this year Terry has fundraised all of this year and regular -which is over half of Stockport Station 9 our grand total of readers of the newslet- Fun Day £500. ter have been kept up to date with the various Terry’s lottery news 9 The FORSS committee competitions. See his Snippets were delighted and last report later in this 10 touched by the over- publication. whelming generosity of Date for your diary 10 We do hope he will still Page 2 The Friends of Reddish South Station The Macmillan Cancer Support ‘Biggest Coffee Morning In the World’…... The day dawned dull but not too cold. We were hop- ing for a day as glorious as last year but it is Septem- An unexpected ber after all and so we just sight for some of prayed there’d be no rain! us ! We actually had 3 trains go We set up early to catch through the sta- our weekly train and to give tion while we conductor & driver some were there cake. This year the train brought some special guests to our station— our Many thanks to Northern Rail Client & Dot with our train conductor—cake courtesy Stakeholder Manager, Mat- of Mrs Joyce Burrows Mrs. B, thew Worman, who has Tina, recently come into post, Joanne, David Huber, our retiring Transportation Policy Offi- Dot, Steve Forde cer (SMBC) and his succes- & Noel, Matthew Worman David Huber & especially Rob Crompton who gave a lot of their free time and baking Steve Magner (L) expertise to and make the Mark Angelucci from TfGM morning such a success sor Steve Forde. We were also delighted to welcome TfGM Rail Partner- ship & Development Officer Steve Magner with col- league Mark Angelucci. Anne Ryan—ex Reddish resident, now of Friends of David Huber Strines Station, came to & support us and renew ac- Steve Forde quaintances with Noel & Terry having a Terry. Steve & Mark had break between not seen our station land- customers scaping in all its glory so we were delighted to show us off! The Friends of Reddish South Station Page 3 ...on Reddish South Station platform September 26th 2014 and carried on regardless under 2 large umbrellas! We are truly grateful to the people who attended— and stayed despite the We are made of strong rain, and for their generos- stuff in Reddish! ity, although the quality of What’s a bit of rain! the baked products cer- tainly helped! We are also, once again, indebted to MacDonald's who provided us so gener- Friend Dave Ashworth pledged £10 and vowed to have ously with cups, stirrers an alcohol free month for ‘Stoptober’ and sugar as well as those We are also, who gave their time to make the cakes. once again, indebted to (pictured left) Some of MacDonald's our customers who provided us so generously with cups, The residents of Reddish stirrers & sugar. did not let us down and came early—Dot slaved non -stop over a hot flask, while the rest of us did the hon- ours with the cake. Unfortunately, the heavens opened around 11am but our guests did not let this hamper a good time! We Local Councillors thought we might try for a Walter Brett & Tom Grundy with Dot record for the amount of The station garden Ashworth & the people squashed together gazebo! is starting to mature under a gazebo (we man- nicely now, and was aged 22!) while one or two a lovely backdrop to stalwarts did not let the the morning. weather beat them Page 4 The Friends of Reddish South Station Campaign News ‘There are also aspirations from Manchester Chamber of Commerce support our campaign local businesses Greater Manchester Cham- in Stockport & ber of Commerce (GMCC) Tameside for a responded to the Northern R: the Northern Franchise franchise consultation and report by Noel: new service from supported the re-opening Stockport to of the railway line from Our new mantra is now Why Not? Manchester Stockport to Manchester Victoria via Reddish South Victoria via & Denton Stations. Denton & In light of this, we immedi- The Friends campaign with ately contacted GMCC and Reddish South our sister station Friends of sent them our response to Denton (FORSADS) were Stations’ the franchise consultation. delighted to receive news Chris Parrack, Tameside of this from Andrew local President, wrote back Gwynne MP. He called it to say how they were im- ‘Good news’ that we were pressed with the report, and getting support in this for- ‘There followed to invite representatives to a mal way from such an influ- breakfast meeting with a question & ential group. guest speaker Roy Chapman answer session In their submission GMCC of Transport for Greater write: ‘There are also aspi- Manchester (TfGM). Noel was asked to address and the feed rations from local busi- the meeting and explain Noel Henry, the author, went nesses in Stockport & our plans for the reinstate- along with FORSS member back gave Tameside for a new service ment of the service from Alan Burrows. from Stockport to Man- Stockport to Manchester us the feeling Victoria. Noel had not ex- chester Victoria via Denton The irony did not escape us pected to be asked to do & Reddish South Stations. that unfortunately Roy Chap- that this this but put across our Whilst Denton & Reddish man was not able to attend case extremely well. (our campaign) are currently lightly used, due to public transport prob- there is considerable in- lems (!) but it did give Noel There followed a question was a vestment being attracted the opportunity to speak to & answer session—the to the eastern side of the the meeting. feedback gave us the feel- ‘no-brainer’ ‘ city, creating jobs that ing that this was a ‘no- Alan Burrows reports: Re- need to be accessed so we brainer’ and it would boost and it would gional Manager Emma An- would be keen to see if a the local economy as well trobus addressed the meet- business case could be as benefit the communities boost the local ing initially and explained built whilst the largest of Reddish & Denton.’ that the Chamber had made economy as scale re-mapping of ser- a submission to the consul- vices in living memory is We would like to thank well as benefit underway’. tation for the Northern Fran- Chris Parrack and GMCC chise. She went on to say for their support and the the They also comment on ca- that rail services in the opportunity to meet and pacity, length of the fran- north west of England were speak to them, as well as communities of chise, smart ticketing and in need of improvement—for Andrew Gwynne who ad- Rail North. The full tran- example, the travelling time vised us of the submission. Reddish script of the document between Manchester & (published with full permis- Leeds presently takes far & Denton sion) can be found on the too long by rail compared FORSS website: with a similar travelling dis- tance in the south east of www.friendsofreddishsouth England. station.co.uk The Friends of Reddish South Station Page 5 FORSADS meet with David Jones, Manager –Operations & Customer Service Projects with Arriva Pictured L to R: Pictured L to R: Tom Grundy, Dot Ashworth, Tom, Dot & Alan Simon Eastwood, David Jones, Jones, Chair , Alan Jones, Alan Burrows, The Friends of Noel Henry Denton Station The Franchise shortlist for bacon butty and assured due to train delays, the Northern Rail Services was him we treated everyone meeting was a truncated announced on 19th August; this way! one but Noel felt that as an there are 3 ‘contenders’: initial meeting it had gone David told us that it was well and that we (well, The icing on the Arriva Rail North Limited the quality and detail of mainly Noel) had repre- Noel’s report that had cake was when Abellio Northern Ltd* sented ourselves well.