Manchester and Milford Railway - The Vision

The Vision

The port of Liverpool had become both a monopoly and highly profitable by the mid-1800s Victorian era, from a combination of the import of raw goods, and the export of industrialised product, not least associated with the cotton industry of Lancashire.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel had had the vision for the Great Western Railway to become a fast track for passenger carriage from London to the new world of North America, and had hence moved his port of embarcation from Bristol to Milford Haven, through construction of the Severn Tunnel and the South Wales Main Line.

On reaching the West Wales port, a proposal was put forward to Parliament in 1845 to construct a broad-gauge line from Milford Haven to Manchester. However, the scheme was not approved, and it was not until 1865 that the LNWR thought that it could solve its and its customers' problems in the port of Liverpool by offering industry an alternative, through better connecting its standard-gauge network to Milford Haven. It hence started sponsoring a series of in-fill railways to make its vision a reality. The proposed route was as follows (North to South):

• LNWR: Manchester to Whitchurch, via Warrington, Chester and Wrexham
• Cambrian Railways: Whitchurch to Oswestry, then to Newtown
• Newtown to Llandovery
• Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway: Llandovery to Milford Haven

After the LNWR proposed the scheme, the Midland Railway agreed to sponsor the construction of the Potteries, Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway (Potts) to connect the Cambrian Railway to Shrewsbury, and onwards west in the Midlands. Unfortunately, the LNWR and GWR blocked the scheme, with the LNWR later building the Shrewsbury and Welshpool Railway, leaving the "Potts" as an unconnected railway at its western end.