Politicians had fallen out over what was perceived by Reddish Labour MP Andrew Gwynne and Labour councillors as a political snub by Stockport Council’s ruling Lib-Dem leadership , when proposals to keep the station open were rejected.

But the row was put to one side this week , in an eleventh hour bid to keep the station open (link below.)
http://www.rmtbristol.org.uk/2007/01/united_front_for_reddish_railw.html#more

The rejection came at last month’s full council meeting , at which proposals to keep South Reddish station open were rejected by the ruling Lib-Dem leadership , ahead of this Friday’s review deadline by Network Rail.

Yesterday , Mr Gwynne , councillors and local business people gathered to present a united face to the planned closure.

Mr Gwynne has asked Network Rail bosses to explore the possibilty of putting on a commuter service from Stockport to Manchester Victoria, using the Stalybridge line through Reddish South and Denton until it reaches the Crowthorne curve in Audenshaw.

A bit of history may be of interest:
Manchester has two main stations - Victoria in the north of the city and Piccadilly in the south. Until 1989 (give or take a year) trains from north of Manchester (eg Preston, Bolton) used Victoria and trains from the south (eg Birmingham, London) used Piccadilly. The Transpennine trains from Newcastle/Scarborough/Hull/York/Leeds to Manchester and Liverpool also used Victoria station, passing through Stalybridge en-route. If you were making a journey from the North into Victoria and required a connection to the south from Piccadilly you had to get across Manchester city centre either by walking, taxi or using a bus that existed specifically to link the two stations (this was a few years before the tram system opened). All in all a bit of a hassle.

To try make things easier for any Transpennine passengers travelling to and from the south BR ran a shuttle service from Stalybridge to Stockport via Denton and Reddish South. Stockport is on the line from Piccadilly to the south so by using the Stalybridge-Stockport train you could pick up a train to the south at Stockport rather than having to go into Manchester and make your way from Victoria to Piccadilly. So the shuttle was there basically for the convenience of passengers making a North-South journey across Manchester.

However in 1989 (give or take a year) the Transpennine trains were rerouted from Victoria to Piccadilly so now there was no need to make the awkward journey across Manchester from Victoria to Piccadilly. This re-routing made the Stalybridge-Stockport shuttle somewhat redundant and it was reduced to the one train per week service needed to avoid having to go through with the closure procedures.

I don't know how much traffic Reddish and Denton attracted when there was a regular service but I suspect it was just a bonus to BR, the end-to-end traffic from Stockport to Stalybridge would have been the reason for the service.

It's worth pointing out that even if Reddish and Denton were to close the line itself would remain open.

For the future it would be interesting to see if a Stockport-Manchester Victoria service via Reddish and Denton would be viable. In recent years there has been a lot of office development in the north of Manchester near Victoria so there's potentially a demand from commuters living south of Manchester who want easy access to the northern part of the city. In addition, looking at a map, Denton station is adjacent to the M60/M67 interchange so there might even be Park and Ride potential assuming it was possible to get from the motorway to the station.   

Here is a link entitled "Riding the weekly train from Stockport to Stalybridge - Pleasures of using the train."
http://www.aidan.co.uk/hyperblog/riding-the-weekly-train-from-stockport-to-stalybridge-pleasures-of-using-the-train/

A further article on the closure battle can be found in the link below.
http://www.rmtbristol.org.uk/2007/01/manchester_link_may_derail_con.html#more

The Speaker of the House of Commons has granted Andrew Gwynne MP his request for an urgent Parliamentary debate on the proposed closure of Denton and Reddish South railway stations (link below.)
http://www.andrewgwynne.labour.co.uk/ViewPage.cfm?Page=20702

Here is a link to a transcipt of the debate in which Andrew Gwynne spoke.
http://www.eyeonmanchester.com/local-mp-fights-for-denton-reddish-rail-line-in-parliament/

He also got an interesting viewpoint on the DfT Closure Guidance from Tom Harris , so well done to him.

Further campaign updates can be found in the links below.
http://www.andrewgwynne.labour.co.uk/ViewPage.cfm?Page=20741

http://www.andrewgwynne.labour.co.uk/ViewPage.cfm?Page=20737

The battle for Denton & Reddish South stations has been won (link below.)
http://www.andrewgwynne.labour.co.uk/ViewPage.cfm?Page=21494

I like some of the wording:

[/b]... the campaign focus is now on securing a proper functioning train service ... [/b]

Which I think would be an admirable sound bite to adopt.   Right times, to right places, and with cancellations being very much the exception. I would have thought that was quite a reasonable target!