The station dates from 1888, when the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway opened a direct line between Windsor Bridge Junction and Crow Nest Junction to shorten its main line between Manchester and Liverpool and avoid the congested Bolton area. It was well used from the beginning and was subsequently quadrupled shortly after the turn of the century, later carrying through expresses from Manchester to Blackpool, Windermere and Glasgow in addition to Liverpool workings. The station became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway during the Grouping of 1923, and then passed on to the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. The cutbacks of the mid to late 1960s saw all the long distance services diverted via other routes, rendering the additional tracks obsolete and they were taken out of use on 21 November 1965. The inner tracks and platform faces on each side were retained to serve the two remaining lines to begin with, but in the late 1980s the surviving tracks were realigned so as to serve just one of the two island platforms in order to allow the other to be abandoned. It was subsequently demolished and the former site is now heavily overgrown. During the early to middle 1970s, the station had a sparse service outside weekday peak periods but in more recent times, the frequency levels have improved considerably with financial support from GMPTE, with a resultant increase in patronage. When Sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by Regional Railways with support from the PTE, an arrangement that continued after the Privatisation of British Railways with co-operation from the current operating company.
Facilities
The station has a ticket office, which is manned seven days a week; a self-service ticket machine is also available in the booking hall. There is a waiting room at platform level, along with digital information screens, timetable posters and a P.A system to offer automated train running announcements. Step-free access to the platform from the ticket office is via a lift, but this is not available when the ticket office is closed.
Service
Monday to Saturday daytimes, there are three departures each hour to Manchester Victoria and three per hour towards Wigan Wallgate, one of which continues to Kirkby northbound. Only a limited direct service now operates onward to through the week and on Saturdays, whilst some trains terminate at rather than Wallgate. Recent timetables provide a convenient connection at Hindley for services to Bolton. On 23 May 2010 a Sunday service was introduced as a 12-month trial by GMPTE, providing an hourly service until the early evening. Previously no trains had called at the station on Sundays since the summer of 1966. This service remains in operation in the current 2019 timetable.
In media
Atherton railway station gained notability when it was the scene of a filmed arrest. Frank Garnett, of Ancoats, arranged to meet up with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl but was instead approached by vigilante group Nonces Not Welcome. The group had stung Garnett, who was filmed being arrested and handcuffed when police arrived. Garnett claimed he had a son and had never done this in his life. He also accused the hunters that's they were doing it for the sake of it and trying to ruin his career. Garnett, in his defense, claimed he was "just having a bit of online fun" and that he "probably just would have kissed her".
