and the Midland jointly, authorised by an Act of 1867. The Midland and Eastern Railway leased the Norwich and Spalding line, but the N&SR remained nominally independent until 1 July 1877. It needed to go to Parliament to plead that it had, in good faith, tried to make a Sutton to Wisbech line, but had been prevented; and that the line had in fact been pre-empted by the PB&SBR; this was accepted and the M&SR was released from the prohibition on declaring a dividend. The Midland and Eastern Railway now effectively controlled the whole of the western section of the future M&GNJR, except for the Peterborough to Sutton Bridge line, which was still controlled by the Midland Railway. The Midland and Eastern was jointly owned by the GNR and the Midland Railway, but it operated more or less independently. The Joint Committee did not meet between 1867 and 1880; trains of the two owning companies ran their own trains on the lines. In this period the network was referred to as the Bourne and Lynn Joint Railway. GN and GE Joint Line For several years the Great Eastern Railway had been trying to get access to northern districts, and had been frustrated by the Great Northern Railway's opposition. Nevertheless, the GER repeatedly presented bills for such lines, and the GNR calculated that it was only a matter of time until it was successful. This policy came to fruition in April 1878 during parliamentary hearings on a GER bill, and negotiations were set in place to establish what became the Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Line, forming a through route from Doncaster to March via Lincoln. The GNR and the Midland Railway had hitherto dominated the southward flow of Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire coal, and saw that the dominance was vulnerable. This led the GNR and the Midland to look favourably at further development of the Bourne and Lynn Joint Railway (Midland and Eastern Railway). Sutton Bridge Dock failure In 1875 parliamentary sanction was obtained by an independent shipping company to develop Sutton Dock. Wisbech had traditionally been used as an inland port, but a Sutton Bridge Dock, connected to the railway network, could be advantageous, saving part of the difficult navigation up the River Nene. The GNR subscribed £20,000, calculating that this could be an export point for coal. The dock opened on 14 May 1881, and a short