B&PR was absorbed by the MB&RR on 3 August 1846. The B&PR's Act of Parliament also allowed for a connection with the proposed Blackburn, Burnley, Accrington and Colne Extension Railway (BBA&CER), which would run from Stubbins Junction to Accrington, providing a direct link between Blackburn and Colne. A second BBA&CER act allowed it to lease or sell itself to the MB&RR, and so in 1845 the two companies joined. The MB&RR later that year changed its name to the East Lancashire Railway (ELR). The following year, the ELR acquired the Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway (LO&PR), which gave it direct access to Liverpool Docks. The LO&PR's line would run from a junction with the Liverpool and Bury Railway at Walton-on-the-Hill to a junction with the B&PR. The enabling act also allowed the LO&PR to build further branch lines, and the ELR obtained further acts including one which allowed it to build a connection to Preston. Following the acquisition on 3 August 1846, a disagreement ensued over traffic priorities and arrangements for the ELR at the NUR's station in Preston. The ELR proposed a new station and a separate line with a new crossing of the Ribble, but this proved controversial; Preston Corporation petitioned against the proposed line, producing a series of witnesses who attested to the damage they presumed would be caused by the embankment necessary for the scheme to proceed. Several members of the corporation were also shareholders of the rival Fleetwood, Preston and West Riding Junction Railway, and the petition's proposer was brother-in-law to a director of the rival Manchester and Leeds Railway. In the end the ELR won its bid, but had to landscape its embankment (which later became the dividing line between Avenham and Miller Parks), make an ornamental arch for carriages and pedestrians crossing under the railway, and build a footbridge on the river viaduct. Meanwhile, the former MB&RR line from Clifton to Rawtenstall was inaugurated on Friday 25 September 1846. Surveyed two days earlier by the Inspector-General of railways, Charles Pasley, who was reportedly satisfied with the project, upwards of 1,000 invitations were delivered to local people, shareholders and other interested parties. They gathered at the new Hunts Bank station in Manchester. Leaving Manchester, the train stopped near Philips Park to collect chairman John Hodges, before continuing to Radcliffe Bridge to collect more passengers. Large crowds were gathered along the course of the railway.