Reddish South railway station

Reddish South railway station is a stop on the Stockport–Stalybridge Line in Reddish, Stockport, England. The station, used by only 26 passengers in 2013/14, is one of the quietest on the UK rail network. From May 1992 until May 2018, it was served by parliamentary services in order to avoid formal proceeding to close the line. Despite the low passenger numbers, the line itself is used regularly for freight traffic and empty stock transfers.

History
Reddish South was opened by the London and North Western Railway (L&NW) when the line between Stockport and Guide Bridge was completed on August 1st, 1849. The line from Stalybridge to Huddersfield opened on the same date, thus giving the L&NW access to Yorkshire. The 19th-century civil engineering firm John Brogden and Sons was the contractor.

The station, which consisted of two island platforms, also had a signal box, sidings, and a goods shed. For more than fifty years, it catered for the LNWR mainline services between Manchester and Leeds.

All regular Monday to Saturday hourly services would stop at the station. However, express traffic was drastically reduced when services were redirected to Manchester London Road station (now Manchester Piccadilly) in May 1899.

With the redirection of the long-distance express services, the station became a scheduled stop for local traffic. Although the Stockport–Stalybridge Line escaped the 1960s Beeching cuts, when large numbers of cross-country branch lines were closed for being uneconomical, the station and line were gradually run down by British Rail over the next couple of decades (especially after the spring 1989 timetable revamp on the Leeds to Manchester main line that saw most services diverted to serve Manchester Piccadilly rather than Victoria).

The remaining original station building on one of the island platforms was demolished, with the sidings and engine shed removed. After the line was eventually reduced to a single track, the second island platform was abandoned. One of the track beds was sold off and the other was filled in. The station became a request stop.

In September 2006, open-access operator Grand Central proposed to run services from Bradford Interchange via Huddersfield and the West Coast Main Line to London Euston. This service would have travelled via Stalybridge, Guide Bridge and Reddish South to Stockport. However, the proposal was dropped after Virgin Trains cited its protection clause preventing any other operators from using the West Coast Main Line.

In May 2007, Network Rail proposed in its North West Route Utilisation Strategy that both Reddish South and Denton stations should be closed while the line remain open for freight and diverted passenger workings. This prompted a campaign to start asking for a regular service from Stockport to Manchester Victoria, via Reddish South and Denton.

Quietest station in the UK
Between April 2013 and March 2014, Reddish South was the third-least-used station in Great Britain, after Teesside Airport railway station and Shippea Hill railway station, with only 26 recorded passengers. In 2015, passenger figures from the Office for Rail and Road showed that Reddish South had become Britain's fourth-quietest railway station. In January 2020, the station was named as the UK's third quietest with just 60 entries and exits between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019. By 2023, the station had become the fifth least used in the UK, with 100 entries and exits.

In comparison, neighbouring stations of Reddish North, Heaton Chapel and Brinnington all have regular services.

Services
For many years, the only service was the 09:22 Fridays-only parliamentary train from Stockport to Stalybridge. It stopped at Reddish South at 09:26, before continuing to Stalybridge via Denton and Guide Bridge.

On 20 May 2018, Arriva Rail North replaced the Friday service with one return service on Saturday mornings. The first service departs Reddish South at 08:46 to and returns at 09:10 to.