 In March 1829 the idea of building a branch railway line from the Oldfield Road terminus in Salford to the new Liverpool and Manchester Railway was mooted , but nothing was built . In 1830 the canal company , led by chairman Sir John Tobin , began to promote a proposal to build a railway along the line of the canal , from Salford to Bolton . Alexander Nimmo was employed to report on the proposal and told that it was possible " so far as he expressed himself capable of judging from his present cursory view of the canal " . The shareholders then sought a bill for a railway from Bolton to Manchester and on 23 August 1831 obtained an Act of Parliament to become the " Company of Proprietors of the Manchester , Bolton and Bury Canal Navigation and Railway Company " . They were empowered to build a line from Manchester to Bolton and Bury , " upon or near the line of ... the Canal " , and a branch from Clifton Aqueduct through to Great Lever . In 1832 this company obtained an Act that allowed it to build the railway . Due mainly to the objections of local mine owners who would have lost access to the canal and supplies , and would not have had branch railways built for them , the company agreed to an amending bill which would keep the canal and allow the new railway to be constructed alongside it . Due to technical and financial constraints the branch to Bury was never built . The canal therefore survived , although locks 4 and 5 in Salford were moved and combined into a two @-@ rise staircase , with a second tunnel built underneath the line which became known as the Manchester and Bolton Railway . 
