Below are some the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions about our campaign to Save the Rose Hill Rail Line.



What happened?

We won!

After arranging a petition, launching a Councillor Call for Action, calling an extraordinary Area Committee Meeting with transport officials and resolving to fund a rail service themselves, local Liberal Democrats are delighted to hear that the government have now climbed down and instructed Northern Trains to reverse its decision to cease service on the Rose Hill, Marple line.

What does this mean?

Northern have been instructed to run a partial service at peak times from Monday 14th September.

What constitutes a partial service?

Northern will run a reduced service in the mornings and evenings.

In summary, from 14th September there will be two trains coming to Rose Hill arriving at 8.11 and 8.36 am. Two trains will leave Rose Hill at 8.17 and 8.52 am.

In the afternoon a train will arrive at Rose Hill at 14.50 and leave at 15.14.

There will be six shuttle buses as well running between Rose Hill and Woodley and calling at Romiley.

What did the Lib Dems do to make this happen?

We:

– Collected over 5,500 signatures on our petition which was handed in to Northern
– Spoke to user groups, Friends of the Station groups, and passenger groups to hear how this closure will affect them
– The 11 Lib Dem councillors who represent the wards along the route wrote to the Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps
– Wrote to the Mayor of Greater Manchester
– Our Transport Committee rep cosigned the letter to the Transport Minister
– Our Transport Committee rep emailed the Transport Minister directly on 27th August
– Lord Andrew Stunell, our former MP, submitted two Parliamentary questions about the closure
– Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, visited Rose Hill Station, spoke to members of the Friends of Rose Hill Station Group and submitted Parliamentary questions to the Transport Secretary
– Called an emergency meeting of the Marple and Werneth Area Committees to discuss a plan going forward
Secured an agreement in principle for Stockport Council to fund a train service for one week on the Rose Hill rail line to show Northern and the Conservative Government that it can be done

The Transport Minister’s announcement comes exactly a week after we demonstrated that it IS possible to run a train on the Rose Hill Line.

   Leave a comment