Congleton railway station

Congleton
Congleton railway station in 1986 Photograph by Ben Brooksbank
Location
Place	Congleton
Local authority	Borough of Cheshire East
Grid reference	SJ872623
Operations
Station code	CNG
Managed by	Northern Rail
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	97,992
2005/06	129,987
2006/07	158,185
2007/08	177,779
2008/09	188,128
2009/10	213,650
2010/11	247,348
2011/12	263,448
2012/13	278,660
History
Key dates	Opened 9 October 1848 (9 October 1848)
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Congleton from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Congleton railway station is a mainline station serving the Cheshire town of Congleton. It lies on the Manchester to Stoke-on-Trent branch of the West Coast Main Line in the United Kingdom.

The line from Stoke to Congleton was opened on 9 October 1848, with Congleton station opening on the same day and owned by the North Staffordshire Railway.

Previous service

Since early privatisation, Virgin trains have served the station every two hours during the day, Monday to Saturday, as was agreed by Virgin Trains to prevent increased use of the line by stopping services.

Until 2003, Congleton was served Monday to Friday by around 19 local stopping services, which consisted of approximately 11 southbound services (one starting from Macclesfield) and 9 trains northbound (some semi-fast). The number of local services operating on Saturday varied but remained similar that on weekdays; 3 trains each way operated on Sunday.

All those local services were operated by North Western trains, latterly known as First North Western.

From 2003 to 2008, there were 7 trains a day Monday to Friday, 3 southbound (one from Macclesfield only) and 4 northbound (one semi-fast). On Saturdays, there were 2 trains southbound (one from Macclesfield only) and 2 trains northbound. On Sundays, there were three trains in each direction, operated by Northern from 2004.

Additionally Virgin Trains (CrossCountry from 2007) operated increased services Monday to Saturday to Stockport, Manchester Piccadilly, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham New Street. Brighton, Reading, Guildford, Gatwick Airport and London (Euston).

Today

Today the station is managed by Northern, which now operate an hourly service pattern to Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester Piccadilly Monday to Saturday.

Also, Arriva CrossCountry operate a limited service at peak times to Manchester Piccadilly and Bournemouth.

The station is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week however the ticket office is only open Monday to Saturday: 06:30-13:40. The next station northbound is Macclesfield and southbound is Kidsgrove. The two train companies that operate at Congleton are Northern Rail and Cross Country with Virgin Pendolino's passing through regularly. It has 2 platforms, one for Manchester and the North, the other for Stoke-on-Trent and the South.

Just outside the station are two bus stops with services to Congleton and Biddulph. The station also has car parking spaces and timetable boards with a help point.

Sundays see a reduced service of four trains in each direction on the run in the afternoon and evening. One of the services was added on 1 April 2012 and is funded 61%/39% by Transport for Greater Manchester and Cheshire East Council.

External links

• Train times and station information for Congleton railway station from National Rail
• North Staffordshire Railway

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Stoke-on-Trent		CrossCountry Cross Country Network		Macclesfield
Kidsgrove		Northern Rail Stoke-Manchester