 However it emerged that the "British and Irish Union Railway" was proposing a line to connect Carlisle and Portpatrick, from where the short sea route to the north of Ireland started.The B&IUR planned to run between Dumfries and Carlisle, along an alignment that the GD&CR intended to use; the Caledonian Railway was also considering using this route.In fact in the 1846 session a huge number of railway schemes were being proposed, many of them fanciful, but most of them requiring attention to consider what strategies might be necessary to avoid loss of the GD&CR's own scheme.