the MSLR and the Southwold line, on the grounds of unfair competition with their own railway, and the Commissioners found in favour of that objection: the MSLR was unable to proceed. Passenger operation The priority of the Receiver was now to start passenger operation, and much work was done to that end. Von Donop visited the line to consider the matter on 25 September 1908. He was not entirely happy with the progress made, but subject to an undertaking to rectify a number of minor matters he approved the opening, and a passenger service started on 29 September 1908. From 1909 In February 1912 it was decided to suspend traffic on the section from Laxfield Mill to Cratfield, as income on the section was very poor. Even now the Directors, who of course were not in control of the Company as it was still in receivership, sought advice from the Railway Commissioners about reviving the extension to Halesworth. The reply inevitably reminded them that they would have to purchase their line back from the receiver, and obtain the consent of the debenture and preference share holders; this was obviously an impossible task, and at length the directors accepted the reality that their scheme to cross the Mid-Suffolk area by rail was unachievable. The track that had been laid beyond Laxfield was recovered for war use in 1914. The Cratfield extension from Laxfield had been opened in 1906, and closed in February 1912. The originally proposed 50-mile network was reduced to 19 miles. In the Summer of 1911 a Sunday service of two trains each way was run, but it was not considered a financial success and was not repeated in later years. Grouping of the railways After World War I the huge backlog of maintenance overwhelmed the company's ability to pay for it against falling income. The Railways Act 1921 brought most of the railways of Great Britain into the ownership of one or other of four new large companies, in a process called "the grouping". The MSLR was to be absorbed by the new London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). However the MSLR was in receivership still, and there were large liabilities and uncertainty about how to discharge them. £89,794 was owed, and an appeal was not affordable because of the cost. The LNER negotiated with debenture holders and negotiated a reduction of the debt to £29,960. The dispute