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Concept
Cheshire Lines Committee
Summary
The Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) was formed in the 1860s and became the second-largest joint railway in Great Britain. The committee, which was often styled the Cheshire Lines Railway, operated of track in the then counties of Lancashire and Cheshire. The railway did not get grouped into one of the Big Four during the implementation of the 1923 grouping, surviving independently with its own management until the railways were nationalised at the beginning of 1948. The railway served Liverpool, Manchester, Stockport, Warrington, Widnes, Northwich, Winsford, Knutsford, Chester and Southport with connections to many other railways.
The Cheshire Lines Committee evolved in the late 1850s from the close working together of two railways, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) and the Great Northern Railway (GNR); this was in their desire to break the near monopoly on rail traffic held by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) in the Southern Lancashire and Northern Cheshire areas. The CLC operated in an area which included the rapidly growing major cities of Manchester and Liverpool, the developing Lancashire coal fields and the growth of the Mersey's seaborne trade.
In 1857, the GNR and MS&LR arranged to work closer together. The MS&LR had just come out of an unhappy alliance with the LNWR and the GNR was motivated by the opportunity to gain access to Manchester, via the MS&LR route from Retford. A joint MS&LR/GNR service between Manchester London Road and London Kings Cross was provided and the arrangements were formalised by Parliament.
Relations between the LNWR and MS&LR companies were never strong, but they deteriorated in 1859 when the MS&LR supported several new railways in the Manchester area; two of which, the Cheshire Midland (incorporated 14 June 1860) and the Stockport & Woodley Junction (incorporated 15 May 1860) were to form part of the initial CLC.
Official source
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