Father Christmas is to pay his annual visit from Lapland to Glossop Station on Saturday 7th December! Friends of Glossop Station are holding their Christmas Gala at the Station between 11.00 and 1.00pm. The Friends are hoping to put up the Christmas decorations at the Station from Tuesday 2nd  December - designed by Bunty Gibson and Chris Harris. Music for the Gala will be provided by the popular Altrincham based trio SPINDRIFT. Christmas Craftmaking under the direction of Andrea Strogen, ably supported by Lesley Nixon, will be available for all children - wooden designs being supplied by Simon Denvers. The making of decorations for the Christmas tree is always popular! The tree has been kindly given to us by GLOSSOP GARDEN CENTRE. Glossop Model Railway Club will have a seasonal layout on display and children can have a go at controlling the trains!! There will also be a seasonal raffle, the first prize being a Family Travel Voucher for Northern Rail. At 11.20 the Christmas Tree lights will be switched on by our guest, ADRIAN THOMPSON Head of Human Resources at Northern Rail. Adrian paid a visit to Glossop earlier this year as part of a Meet the Directors' session on a cold March evening. His good humour and willingness to listen made him a number one choice as guest for this task! We thank Adrian for accepting the invite! And then the exciting arrival of Father Christmas on the train, scheduled for 11.48. Santa will then walk with the children to the Waiting Room where every child will be given a free gift. We are hoping Matthew Cox of Glossop Tours may be able to join Santa in pantomime costume! Do come along and join in the fun!! We thank as always Northern Rail for their support of this event and in particular Don Jary, Client and Stakeholder Manager West and Theo McLauchlan, Glossop Line Manager.

A PRESS RELEASE by TfGM this week revealed possible inclusion of the Glossop Line in a future Phase Two Tram train system in the GM area. We are wary of this scheme as a way forward for the Glossop Line for a number of reasons.
The Glossop Line is already served by clean, comfortable 3 coach Class 323 electric units with seats for 284 passengers. At peak times passengers joining from Godley onwards may struggle to get a seat. Passenger numbers continue to rise – use of Glossop Station alone totalled 765,364 in 2012. Along with Hadfield and Dinting well over a million passengers now use these 3  Derbyshire stations. In their own analyses TfGM recognize that use of tram train vehicles would significantly increase overcrowding and they also note that economic/social costings are only medium compared to converting the Marple Line – phase one. We would like to stress that we feel that Heavy Rail ie conventional style trains should be retained on the Glossop Line. With the huge numbers using the trains longer ie 4 coach and more frequent trains would seem to be the logical solution. We are also concerned that any tie in with Metrolink would mean loss of staff at booking offices and the withdrawal of being able book to anywhere in the country. And closure of ticket offices would negate all the recent improvements to the new ticket office and waiting rooms! Ironically too journeys would be no quicker! 
Northern’s recently introduced skip stopping timetable ie most trains not stopping at Gorton has been broadly welcomed by Glossop users. And with no news of any concrete proposals for relieving traffic on Mottram Moor it would seem sensible to keep a window open for a possible rail revival of the Woodhead route to Sheffield. Running Tram trains could prevent this. Glossop needs better East connectivity which is often overlooked! The Station Friends’ groups at Glossop, Hadfield, Dinting, Broadbottom and Hattersley are in the process of forming a Glossop Line forum. The vision being to present a unified voice on the future of the Glossop line - in terms of trains, timetabling and staffing. Our ideas/conclusions will be made available, we hope, next Spring.  We will use these as the basis for discussion with new franchisees next year and in the run up to the new 2016 Franchise start.  We will seek through the High Peak and Hope Valley Community Rail Partnership to engage in discussions with TfGM to ensure they are fully aware of the local issues/concerns they have raised with their consideration of tram trains for the Glossop Line. So far we are unaware of TfGM doing this outside GM. The national Tram Train pilot project involving these vehicles is due to start in 2016 between Sheffield and Rotherham. Your comments / thoughts welcomed!! Read the full Press Release here (PDF file - relevant section from page 41)

FOGS’ first ever project in 2006 was to create a garden alongside the station building on Howard Street. This project was the result of 3 years’ hard work to raise the money and get the necessary planning permission. It was the inspiration of Linda Newman. In its early years the garden looked good but the wet summers of 2010/ 2011 and very cold winters took their toll on the plants. It was decided earlier this year to go for significant renovation following a Derbyshire Greenwatch grant. Bunty Gibson came up with an inspired design!  A few weeks ago Bunty, John K and Neil dug most of the plants up – replanting elsewhere when possible - to create bare earth for the new plants. A lot of time and effort has gone into the new plantings. Bunty has created two diamond effects surrounded by what we colloquially call Barbed wire plants (Small, wiry and grey in colour!) and blue grasses to simulate the effect of water beneath the plaque. Pansies and bulbs have been planted too along with additional black grasses and extra eunonymus plants. The effect is both symmetrical and disciplined.  We are delighted with it and Bunty’s design! Whilst working on the garden we received a constant flow of compliments from passers by. The work was complemented last week by a new gravel path entrance created by Eric. We thank Bunty, John, Eric and Neil for their work to renovate the Garden. We also thank Glossop Garden Centre, Wimberry Hill Garden Centre and Windmill Nurseries,  Penistone for their help in supplying the very specific plants that we needed. Your reactions welcomed!!