The arrangement was for the establishment of a joint committee to regulate and work traffic on four of the railways already authorised but not yet open. The lines were: Stockport and Woodley Junction Railway opened 12 January 1863. Cheshire Midland Railway opened in two stages in May 1862 and January 1863. Stockport, Timperley and Altrincham Junction Railway opened in December 1865. West Cheshire Railway opened on 1 September 1869. Each company was to provide an equal amount of capital and four representatives to the joint management committee. This arrangement was confirmed by the Great Northern (Cheshire Lines) Act in Parliament in 1863; this was the first official use of Cheshire Lines and at the time it was entirely appropriate as the majority of the lines involved were in Cheshire. This Act had not, however, formally set up a separate legal body, providing instead for the two companies to manage and work the four railways through their existing structures. In 1861, the two partners, MS&LR & GNR, had been authorised by Parliament to construct the Garston and Liverpool Railway which made an end-on connection with the St Helens Canal and Railway Company at . This line opened on 1 June 1864 and ran for to a terminus at Liverpool Brunswick. This terminus station was only in use from 1864 to 1874, when it was superseded by Liverpool Central, but it did have an extended life as a goods station. The Act included a short () line to connect a goods station, Wavertree Road (later Wavertree and Edge Hill), to the LNWR at Edge Hill and running powers from there to Garston. Included within this Act were running powers between Garston Dock and Timperley Junction using the lines of the LNWR through Widnes, Warrington and Lymm. and then the Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway (MSJ&AR) through to Manchester. The jointly administered lines at this time were known as The Liverpool, Garston & Cheshire Railways. Liverpool Brunswick station was inconveniently situated near the Southern docks, a good distance from the city centre. This necessitated the railway to transport passengers and their goods by omnibus into the city centre. To rectify this, the partners applied to build an extension railway and this resulted in the building of a difficult line, mainly in tunnels, to a new . The Midland Railway (MR) secured a route into Manchester city centre in 1862 and they began