of the coal owners. David Davies had been active as a railway contractor, and in later life a politician and industrialist, and with other like-minded business people, he formed a group intent on building an alternative dock and railway system, and a bill was prepared and submitted for the 1883 session of Parliament. In fact the strength of opposition from the Taff Vale Railway, the Bute Trustees, and other established companies was such that the bill failed in that session. It was resubmitted in the 1884 session, and this time it was passed, and the Barry Dock and Railway Company Act gained the Royal Assent on 14 August 1884. The promoters' costs for the two bills had been about £70,000, a huge sum at that time. Authorised share capital was £1,050,000, to build from Barry northward to a junction with the Taff Vale Railway at Trehafod, in the Rhondda; there was to be a south-to-west junction with the GWR main line (former South Wales Railway main line) at Peterston and an east to north connection nearby, and a spur to join the Taff Vale main line at Treforest. The dock was to be 73 acres in extent, the largest enclosed dock area in the country; in fact the area between Barry Island and the mainland was to be made non-tidal, an area extending to 200 acres. Taff Vale counter-attack The Taff Vale Railway, and to some extent the Rhymney Railway, felt keenly the effect of the Barry developments. They did not control the Cardiff Docks and were largely subject to the wishes of the owner, the Bute Trustees, who could set rates and choose whether to install plant independently of the railway companies. Conversely the integrated nature of the Barry Dock and Railway's plans would give it considerable commercial advantage. The Taff Vale set about obtaining Parliamentary authorisation in 1885 to acquire the Bute Docks, but this was refused by the Lords Committee when the Taff Vale would not agree to running powers requested by the Barry Railway northward from the Trehafod and Treforest connections. The Taff Vale also supported a nominally independent Cardiff, Penarth and Barry Junction Railway which would be a spoiler to the Barry company's development plans at Barry itself, but this was refused, the Barry being granted a corresponding railway from Barry to a junction at Cogan with the Taff Vale's Penarth lines, by Act of