Reddish South railway station is a stop on the StockportâÂÂStalybridge line. It is one of two serving the town of Reddish, in Greater Manchester, England; the other is . The station is one of the quietest on the British railway network; it was used by only 26 passengers in 2013/14. It has been served by parliamentary services since May 1992, in order to avoid a formal proceeding to close the line; however, the line is used regularly for freight traffic and empty stock transfers.
Reddish South was opened by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR), when the line between and was completed on 1 August 1849. The line from to opened on the same day, thus giving the LNWR 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 .
All regular Monday to Saturday hourly services stopped at the station; however, express traffic was drastically reduced when services were redirected to in May 1899.
The station then became a scheduled stop for local traffic. Although the StockportâÂÂStalybridge line escaped the 1960s Beeching cuts, when large numbers of branch lines across the country were closed for being uneconomical, the station and line were gradually run down by British Rail over the next couple of decades. In spring 1989, a new timetable on the Leeds to Manchester main line saw most services diverted to serve Manchester Piccadilly rather than .
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 to , via Huddersfield and the West Coast Main Line. This service would have travelled via Stalybridge, Guide Bridge and Reddish South to . 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.
Between April 2013 and March 2014, Reddish South was the third-least-used station in Great Britain, after and , with only 26 recorded passengers. In 2015, passenger figures from the Office of Rail and Road showed that Reddish South had become Britain's fourth-quietest railway station. In January 2020, the station was named as the Britain's third quietest, with just 60 entries and exits between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019. In 2022âÂÂ2023, the station had become the fifth least used, with 100 entries and exits. In 2023âÂÂ24, the station was again the fifth least used, with 128 entries and exits.
In comparison, the neighbouring stations of Reddish North, and all have regular services.
For many years from 1992, the only service was the 09:22 Fridays-only parliamentary train from Stockport to Stalybridge; it stopped at Reddish South at 09:26.
On 20 May 2018, Arriva Rail North replaced the Friday service with one return service on Saturday mornings. Northern Trains now operates the service, which departs Reddish South at 08:46 to Stockport, returning at 09:10 for Stalybridge.