The South Yorkshire Joint Railway was a committee formed in 1903, between the Great Central Railway, the Great Northern Railway, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, the Midland Railway and the North Eastern Railway to oversee the construction of a new railway in the Doncaster area of South Yorkshire, England. The five companies had equal rights over the line, each of the companies regularly working trains over it. Passenger trains on the line ended in 1929; freight work continued on the line, with eight collieries served at peak. Most of the collieries closed by the 1990s; but the line remained important for coal transportation both north and southwards to the Aire and Trent Valley power stations. History Authorisation and operators Parliamentary permission to build the line was authorised with the passing of the South Yorkshire Joint Railway Act on 14 August 1903, and the formation of the South Yorkshire Joint Line Committee; formed from the railway companies: NER, L&YR, GNR, MR, and GCR. The South Yorkshire Joint Railway act incorporated an earlier scheme, the Shireoaks Laughton & Maltby Railway (Act passed 9 August 1901), a venture of the GCR and MR companies. In the grouping of 1923, the Midland and L&YR were grouped into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), whilst the GCR, GER and GNR were all grouped into the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). It thus remained an LMS-LNER joint line until nationalisation into British Railways in 1948. Route The line ran from Kirk Sandall Junction on the Great Central's – (former South Yorkshire Railway) to join up with the Great Central and Midland Joint Railway at Dinnington junction. The NER had access over the GCR from Hull, the MR had access from the Nottingham-Worksop line, over GCR metals from , the L&Y joined at St. Catherine's Junction from its Dearne Valley Railway and the GNR had connections to the south of Doncaster. As opened, the SYJR was in length, including its colliery branch lines and connections to the several lines it crossed in its path. It opened to freight on 1 January 1909, and to passengers on 1 December 1910. The capital cost was almost £411,000. The line initially served Markham Main, Yorkshire Main, Dinnington Main, Maltby Main, Thurcroft and Harry Crofts collieries. The largest amount of coal traffic originating on the line was recorded in 1929, almost 3 million tons. This was the result of