The line opened on 2nd August 1869; single throughout, with the track on the Up side. Goods traffic began on 1st march 1870, and goods depots opened at Rose Hill and Bollington. In 1871 the line was doubled throughout at a cost of �16,000 and second platforms were built at stations. The original Rose Hill station building was a small one-storey brick building, with a low-pitched slate roof, extending out to form a canopy. It comprised four rooms: a porters' room, a station office, a waiting room, and a ladies' room. The Down platform originally had a wooden shelter, but growing business called for greater facilities.
The station was originally oil-lit, until gas lighting arrived at the turn of the century. The goods yard had a siding running behind the present Down building. To the South, three sidings served Rose Hill Brickworks, which remained open until the 1920s. The site later became Rose Hill tip, which too had a private siding and loadind bay until the 1960s. When Rose Hill was built, the only other building in sight was the Railway Pub and the station was named after the nearby Rose Hill House, which stood where The Drive now runs. Development around the station came after World War One, with houses being built more on the Rose Hill side of Marple. A pair of houses were even built next to the station.
The initial train service of four each way and two on Sundays was soon found inadequate, and by October 1875 this had risen to six each way and four on Sundays. The 0910 from Macclesfield ran non-stop from Romiley reaching Manchester at 0955, and the 1620 from Manchester, non-stop from Ardwick, reached Rose Hill in 18 minutes, and Macclesfield in 45 minutes- much faster than anything on offer to Rose Hill in 1980. Most 'express' running had been given up by the MSL, and services concentrated on intermediate traffic, with the result of slower timings; and most trains took an hour to reach Macclesfield. On the Manchester-Rose Hill run the fastest timing was 24 minutes. By April 1910, the passenger service had grown to nine each way.
By 1938 the growth at Rose Hill was phenominal. By 1938 the station was engulfed in a sea of red brick. In the years around 1930 the aspect of Rose Hill had completely changed from rural to suburban. The growth was no doubt stimulated by the existence of the station, and in turn the new housing had stimulated a great increase in the number of trains, which had doubled by 1938. Despite this, the railways were soon losing ground to the roads on a local as well as national scale. SELNEC took over responsibility for running Manchester's rail services on 1st January 1972. Improvements had been made to the service, the main one being the introduction of an extra morning train to Manchester.
In 1970, the line from Rose Hill to Macclesfield closed to be reopened in 1985 as an 11 mile traffic free cycle path and bridleway known as The Middlewood Way. Rose Hill had gained an hourly off-peak service, but a much worse peak-hour service, and lost its early morning and late evening services altogether. The peak service had doubled to 8 trains between 0700 and 0900, and the hourly interval service extended into the evening, giving Rose Hill 24 Up and 26 Down services, undoubtedly the best ever service; but the fastest timing of 27 minutes compared favourably with 18 minutes achieved in 1875!
In 1974, SELNEC became GMT, and in addition to providing a better service at Rose Hill, they improved facilities at the station, converting the goods yard into a carpark and bus turning area. From July 1980, the Rose Hill branch had been singled, and only the Down platform remained, which was raised to the standard modern height. The result of these improvements has been to enable the railways to retain their passengers in a new era of rising car ownership and even attract new custom.