and Bourn Railway On 29 July 1862 the Spalding and Bourn Railway was authorised, also with capital of £100,000. This line was to make an end-on junction at Bourne with an offshoot of the GNR, the Bourne and Essendine Railway. The line was opened on 1 August 1866. It ran through practically unpopulated terrain. The GNR worked the line. PW&SBR extending to Wisbech The Peterborough, Wisbech and Sutton Bridge Railway now in 1864 got authorisation to make a connecting line at Wisbech to the GER line, and to the harbour. The connection to the GER was in fact not made. On 1 August 1866 its main line opened for traffic. At Peterborough it started from the Midland Railway lines, on the west side of the GNR main line, and crossed both the Midland and GNR track by a bridge. The line was in length, to a junction at Sutton Bridge. The Midland Railway worked the trains, working to and from the GER station at Peterborough and calling at the GNR station en route. Rivalry between the GNR and the GER The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was formed on 7 August 1862, from the Eastern Counties Railway and other concerns. The GER made it clear, not least by bitter parliamentary struggles, to get authorisation for its own line or for running powers to get to Doncaster. Considerable quantities of coal were being brought south from the South Yorkshire Coalfield by the GNR, and the GER sought to take a share of the traffic. Fearing that this might happen, suddenly giving the GER a monopoly of the coal traffic to East Anglia, the GNR started to sponsor friendly railways in the area itself. Midland and Eastern Railway The Lynn and Sutton Bridge Railway and the Spalding and Bourn Railway amalgamated to form the Midland and Eastern Railway in 1866; the intention was to push westward to Saxby and join the Midland Railway there. This plan was opposed by the Great Northern Railway and the compromise was that the scheme was dropped, but that the Midland Railway was given running powers from over two GNR-sponsored lines: from Bourne to Essendine, and (by reversing there) from Essendine to Stamford; this was not a direct or fast route. The arrangement was agreed, and ratified by the Midland and Eastern Railway Act of 23 July 1866. The Midland and Eastern Railway was operated by the GNR