was to be shared. The Forth Bridge Railway Company would construct the bridge, and the Company would be wholly owned by the North British Railway (30%), the Midland Railway (32.5%), the North Eastern Railway (18.75%) and the Great Northern Railway (18.75%). The North British Railway was to reapply for powers to build the Glenfarg Line, upgrading the secondary lines through Kinross and connecting from Kinross to Perth, and to build from Inverkeithing to Burntisland to enable Fife coast trains to reach the bridge. New routes were required on the southern shore of the Forth as well, to connect Edinburgh and Glasgow more directly to the bridge. On 4 March 1890, the Forth Bridge was opened. Until that date the NBR had conveyed passengers and goods into Fife by ferry across the Firth of Forth. The opening of the bridge transformed the railway geography of Fife and the Lothians, but the North British Railway had been slow in forming the approach railways to serve the new crossing, and at first only local trains could use it. FUll opening was delayed until 2 June 1890, when the new line from Corstorphine (later called Saughton Junction) to Dalmeny, and the improvements to the lines in Kinross were ready. The NBR now—at last—had a first class line to Perth via Cowdenbeath, Kinross, and the new Glenfarg line; they also had a new line from Inverkeithing through Burntisland. The approach railways were now complete, but considerable volumes of bad publicity resulted from the inadequate state of Edinburgh Waverley station. Many trains now attached and detached portions and vehicles in the station, and the track layout and platform accommodation was grossly inadequate. The NBR's partners in the Forth Bridge Company had, like the NBR itself, invested vast sums of money in the bridge, and they were dismayed to see the critical press coverage now that their investment had at last been completed. North Clydeside When the North British Railway absorbed the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in 1865, it acquired the former Glasgow, Dumbarton and Helensburgh Railway giving access to the important industrial area of Dumbarton, and the River Leven. The steamer trade on the Clyde was encouraged, and from 1882 the NBR opened a pier at Craigendoran, earlier attempts to build a connecting railway through Helensburgh to the existing pier there having been frustrated. In 1863, the Glasgow and Milngavie Junction Railway was opened, encouraging residential