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 CrossCountry served the station every two hours during the day, Monday to Saturday, 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 and nine trains northbound. The number of local services operating on Saturday varied but remained similar that on weekdays; three trains each way operated on Sunday. All those local services were operated byNorth Western trains, latterly known as First North Western. From 2003 to 2008, there were seven trains a day Monday to Friday, three southbound and four northbound. On Saturdays, there were two trains southbound and 2 trains northbound. On Sundays, there were three trains in each direction, operated by Northern Rail from 2004. Additionally Virgin CrossCountry operated increased services Monday to Saturday to Stockport, Manchester Piccadilly, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham New Street, Brighton, Reading, Guildford and Gatwick Airport.
Current Services
The station is managed by Northern Trains, which operate an hourly service pattern to Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester Piccadilly Monday to Saturday. Also CrossCountry operate a limited service at peak times to Manchester Piccadilly and Bournemouth these services are temporarily suspended due to Covid-19. On Sundays, there is a reduced service of six trains in each direction throughout the day. This was increased from 5 each way in December 2018. The station is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The ticket office is only open Monday to Saturday: 06:30-13:40, although there are two ticket machines. The station also has car parking spaces, CIS screens and a help point. Congleton was due to gain hourly Sunday services to Blackpool North and Stoke-on-Trent , although the addition of these services had been delayed until at earliest May 2020, due to driver contract issues. Due to Northern Trains taking over the Northern Franchise this is no longer a franchise commitment. Congleton lost 1 peak service on Monday-Friday in each direction to/from Manchester in May 2018, one of which was reinstated in May 2019, leaving Manchester Piccadilly at 17:21. A later train from Manchester on weekdays was added leaving Manchester at 22:18. 2 peak time services were reinstated in December 2019 one to stoke on Trent leaving at 06:07 Monday to Saturday and one to Manchester Piccadilly leaving at 07:41 Monday to Friday.
