page_title: Northern and Eastern Railway
section_title: Proposals
hierarchical_section_title: Northern and Eastern Railway / Proposals
caption_attribution_description: English: System map of the Northern and Eastern Railway network, England, in 1843 at the end of its independent existence
context_page_description: The Northern & Eastern Railway was an early British railway company, that planned to build a line from London to York. Its ambition was cut successively back, and it only constructed from Stratford, London to Bishop's Stortford and Hertford. It was always short of money, and it got access to London over the Eastern Counties Railway. It was built at the track gauge of five feet, but it converted to standard gauge in 1844.
  Its main line opened progressively from 1840 to 1842. It was worked by the neighbouring Eastern Counties Railway, and it leased its network to that company in from the beginning of 1844 for 999 years. From that time it was a financial company only, it amalgamated with the Great Eastern Railway in 1902.
  The entire network is still in use and electrified, and part of the original main line now forms a section of the main line between London and Cambridge.
context_section_description: When the Stockton and Darlington Railway was opened in 1825, great enthusiasm for railway transport was generated. A number of schemes were put forward for connecting London and York, and some of these were planned to pass through Cambridge. A canal engineer, Nicholas Wilcox Cundy, surveyed such a line, to be known as the Grand Northern & Eastern Railway, in 1834, and the following year another survey was made, by Joseph Gibbs, for another line from London through Cambridge to York. This scheme went to Parliament in the 1836 session as a proposed "Great Northern Railway", nothing to do with the actual Great Northern Railway a decade later. The 1836 proposal was rejected by Parliament.
  Meanwhile, a public meeting was held at Cambridge Town Hall on 23 January 23, 1836, at which it was decided to support a route surveyed by James Walker. A Bill for a Northern & Eastern Railway was prepared; it was to run from London to Cambridge, with a branch from a little south of Cambridge to Newmarket, Norwich and Yarmouth. The extension from Cambridge to Lincoln was not included, as the surveys had not been completed. The Bill was passed, but the route was cut back to run from London to Cambridge only; it received the Royal Assent on 4 July 1836. Authorised share capital was £1,200,000. Although the construction cost was large, the Company was confident of a 16% return.
caption: The Northern and Eastern Railway network at the end of 1843
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