Congleton | |
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Congleton railway station in 1986
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Location | |
Place | Congleton |
Local authority | Borough of Cheshire East |
Grid reference | SJ872623 |
Operations | |
Station code | CNG |
Managed by | Northern |
Number of platforms | 2 |
DfT category | E |
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries |
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Annual rail passenger usage* | |
2011/12 | 0.263 million |
2012/13 | 0.279 million |
2013/14 | 0.291 million |
2014/15 | 0.291 million |
2015/16 | 0.313 million |
History | |
Key dates | Opened 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. | |
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.
In early privatisation, Virgin trains 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 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 and CrossCountry. It has two platforms, one for Manchester and the North, the other for Stoke-on-Trent and the South.