page_title: Congleton railway station
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Congleton railway station / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Opening of the viaduct over the River Dane in 1848
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: 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 (one starting from Macclesfield) and nine trains northbound (some semi-fast). 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 by North Western trains, latterly known as First North Western.
  From 2003 to 2008, there were seven trains a day Monday to Friday, three southbound (one from Macclesfield only) and four northbound (one semi-fast). On Saturdays, there were two trains southbound (one from Macclesfield only) 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.
caption: Opening of the 105 ft (32 m) high 1,255 ft (383 m) long North Rode viaduct  on 1 June 1848[1] The railway crosses the River Dane north of Congleton
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