Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway

The next day the GNR transferred the Black Carr Junction to Pyewipe Junction line to the joint committee, and the GER paid over £383,760 for the value of the transferred railway. The GER wasted no time in diverting the southbound coal traffic over the route; up until that time it had received the traffic from the GNR at Peterborough. The GNR diverted mineral traffic to the route, relieving the main line. The Lincoln avoiding line was a goods-only route at first but on 20 March 1883 the Board of Trade sanctioned its use for passenger trains if required. Lincoln passenger station improvements were carried out in 1883.

Further south a new connection was made at Huntingdon, where GNR mineral trains regained their own track. The old junctions there had long since fallen into disuse. The connection from the Joint Line faced south and converged with the GNR main line 16 chains (320 m) south of Huntingdon station: a new Joint station (independent of the GNR main line station) was built, to accommodate also the Midland Railway trains from Kettering. The station opened on 1 May 1883, and the GNR started an experimental passenger service from there to March, but it did not attract much business, and was withdrawn from 1 November 1883. On that day the GER had been running trains from its network to Godmanchester (still named "Huntingdon" until 1 July 1882) and on cessation of the GNR service extended its own trains to the Joint station at Huntingdon. The Midland Railway ran passenger trains over that part of the route to Cambridge. The GNR had been running goods trains to March but withdrew them also, now only running a limited goods service to St Ives.

Extent of Joint Committee control

The extent of the route directly controlled by the Joint Committee was from Black Carr Junction, south of Doncaster, to Huntingdon by way of the Lincoln avoiding line and St Ives (reverse); but there were discontinuities where the Joint Committee had running powers over other companies' lines:

Crossing the River Trent at Gainsborough: South (or West Trent) Junction to North (or East Trent) Junction; (MS&LR, later Great Central Railway);

Through Spalding station: Spalding North Junction to Spalding Joint Line Junction; (GNR);

Passing Whitemoor and March station: Grassmoor Junction to March, St Ives Junction; (GER); the GNR yard at Whitemoor was to be transferred to the GER;

Approaching and through St Ives station: Needingworth Junction to St Ives Junction (GER).

Additional sections that were under Joint Committee control were:

Boultham Junction to West Holmes Junction (Lincoln);

Spur towards Sleaford GNR station: Sleaford North Junction to West Junction;

Ramsey branch (from 1 January 1897).

Supplementary issues

The GER provided additional siding accommodation at March (Whitemoor) and in November 1884 opened a north to west spur at March, making a triangle there, to enable trains from the Joint Line to reach Peterborough.

John Crabtree, formerly manager of the Colne Valley Railway, was appointed to be manager of the Joint Lines at a salary of £600 annually. Maintenance of the Joint Line south of the Sleaford–Boston line was to be the responsibility of the GER, and north of that line the task of the GNR. The GER had to pay tolls to pass the MS&LR bridge over the River Trent at Gainsborough, as the Joint Line was routed over the pre-existing MS&LR line there; an independent bridge had earlier been considered.

The Joint Line proved a huge advantage to the GER, which gained direct and indirect access to a large area of colliery working at a time when the demand for domestic, industrial and export coal was very considerable. By contrast the GNR suffered a loss of income, £81,000 in the first year, chiefly due to the loss of haulage of coal that was now in the hands of the GER. Anderson comments: "Ironically the Joint line actually hurt the GN. Its value as relief for the congested main line was less than expected, and the GE soon became established as a major competitor."

Ramsey

A railway from Somersham to Ramsey had been originally authorised by the Great Eastern Railway (Ramsey Branch) Act 1865 (28 & 29 Vict. c. lxii). It was authorised again as Ramsey and Somersham Junction Railway by the Ramsey and Somersham Junction Railway Act 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. ccxii) and opened in September 1889; Somersham Junction was on the Joint Line a short distance north of St Ives. It was a single line 7 miles (11 km) in length, with a terminus in Ramsey and an intermediate station at Warboys. It was worked from the outset by the GER. There was already a Ramsey branch from the west, joining the Huntingdon to Peterborough main line at Holme, and it had originally been under the control of the GER, although it only connected to the GNR at Holme, and it was alter leased to the GNR. The two branches had separate, unconnected stations at Ramsey. The GER had contemplated connecting them, as a means of getting a through connection to the GNR main line, but the Joint Line reduced the projected benefit of that scheme.

In October 1895 the GN and GE decided to make the branch part of the joint line; the GER was to work it for 30% of receipts, the balance being divided between the two owners. The Great Northern Railway Act 1896 (59 & 60 Vict. c. cxxxviii) of 29 July 1896 authorised this and it became effective from 1 January 1897. The GNR ran only very occasional goods trains on the line.

St Ives

The route from March to Huntingdon involved a reversal at St Ives. The track layout at St Ives included three long sidings from the point of junction stretching towards Fenstanton. GNR goods trains reversing there must have used the sidings for the purpose. Reversal at St Ives for the GNR mineral trains from Yorkshire to London would have been inconvenient, and it appears that they generally used the Spalding to Peterborough line to join the main line instead. The St Ives route was chiefly used for access to March for general and local goods trains.

GER alliances in the north

Although the Joint Line gave the GER access to Doncaster, the company was still anxious to get direct access to coal mines, and this led it to give considerable financial support to a proposed railway that became the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway. It was to run from both Manchester and Warrington, through Buxton and Chesterfield, crossing (and connecting to) the GNR main line at Tuxford, and continuing to Lincoln and the east coast at Sutton-on-Sea (near Mablethorpe). A large dock complex was to be built there for coal export. In return for its financial help, the GER got running powers. In fact the LD&ECR was unable to get the huge amount of investment capital it needed, and only built the section between Chesterfield and Lincoln; nevertheless this gave the GER the access it wanted to some important colliery areas.

The truncated LD&ECR reached Pyewipe Junction, Lincoln, from Barlborough Colliery on the Beighton line, on 16 November 1896. All hope of reaching Sutton-on-Sea had now been abandoned, and the LD&ECR had to beg the Joint Committee to allow it to run through Lincoln station so as to join the MS&LR at Durham Ox Junction (immediately east of Lincoln GNR station), thereby getting access to docks at Grimsby. This meant heavy and slow mineral trains running through the central area of Lincoln as the MS&LR line could not be accessed from the avoiding line.

When the Sheffield District Railway was built (opening in 1900), it was operated as an offshoot of the LD&ECR line. As a result, it gave further penetration into mineral and industrial areas for the GER.

Passenger services

On the opening throughout of the Joint Line, the Great Eastern Railway ran special racegoers' trains to Doncaster for the St Leger, including one from London Liverpool Street. The GNR had not anticipated this in the first year. When the GER publicised their intention to run a special from Liverpool Street to Doncaster for the Doncaster Cup on the following Friday in addition, the GNR felt obliged to run a special of its own from London King's Cross, something it did not customarily do. In fact the Friday services were poorly patronised: 12 persons used the GNR train, and six the GER train.

From 1 September 1882 the GER ran three trains a day between Liverpool Street and Doncaster via Cambridge and the Joint Line, augmenting the through London coaches attached to certain ordinary March to Doncaster trains. From 1 November 1892, running powers over the North Eastern Railway from Shaftholme Junction (the boundary of GNR and NER territory) to York were obtained, and the Liverpool Street trains were extended to York. This established the "Cathedrals Route" connecting Ely, Lincoln and York, but Gordon says that at 214 miles (344 km) the service provided "rather ineffectual competition with the GNR's 188 miles [303 km] from King's Cross". The service remained at three per day until July 1915 when it was reduced to one a day, and further shortened back to Doncaster in 1917, and abolished in 1918. "There was never more than a fragmentary reinstatement of this service."

In 1885 the GER started a through service from Harwich, Parkeston Quay, to Doncaster, by way of Ely, and March "in connection with their Hook of Holland route to the continent. In 1891 the service was improved by the running of a vestibuled Restaurant Car Train". "This train, splendidly equipped with restaurant cars, and carrying its own conductor-interpreter, runs in conjunction with the Great Eastern steamers which sail to and from the Hook of Holland."

Another famous train that used the route for many of the years was the North Country Continental which linked Harwich Parkeston Quay with Manchester and north west England.

In 1905 a through restaurant car service was inaugurated between Manchester London Road and Great Yarmouth by way of Retford, Lincoln, March and Ely, by arrangement with the Great Central Railway.

The bulk of services were local and in July 1922 the Bradshaw's timetable guide revealed few passenger services serving the smaller intermediate stations during the week. The North Country Continental served March, Spalding and Lincoln on the route and a service from Lowestoft to York served March, Spalding, Lincoln, Gainsborough and Doncaster. A Liverpool Street to Doncaster service also called at these stations. Most of the minor stations had three or four services each way.

On Sundays, minor stations between March and Lincoln had no services and there was a single northbound express. There was a single all stations train from Lincoln to Doncaster.

The Midland Railway ran trains from Kettering to Cambridge over the Huntingdon to St Ives section, by virtue of running powers arranged with the GER prior to the formation of the Joint Line.

Goods traffic

The line passed through terrain that was largely rural and sparsely inhabited. Accordingly, local goods traffic was not significant, although the arable agricultural sector provided a seasonal flow. The dominant goods traffic was naturally mineral trains, chiefly coal, from South Yorkshire, and later Lancashire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Much of this traffic was destined for London and the Home Counties, and domestic coal and coal for manufacturing power systems was significant at least up until the 1950s. Significant flows also ran to East Anglian destinations, and the export coal trade was also important until the 1950s. In addition, manufactured goods and the raw materials for them provided a significant long distance flow between London and East Anglia on the one hand, and Yorkshire, Lancashire and the east and north Midlands on the other.

The GER introduced its first fitted fast freight trains in 1906; they ran twice daily over the joint line, and were limited to 25 wagons.

In 1910 Charles Dix described the goods traffic at March:

Here the ordinary goods and merchandise traffic from London and the South, and the flower and fruit and other traffic from the Eastern Counties is collected and sent northwards, and similarly the traffic from the North, the textile and staple manufactures from Lancashire and Yorkshire and fish traffic from the north-eastern ports is collected for distribution to the South and over the Eastern Counties, eight express goods trains being scheduled to run daily each way between March and Doncaster for the purpose. Of the first importance is, of course, the enormous development of coal traffic from the South Yorkshire and Derbyshire coalfields, no less than 11 scheduled coal trains working to March over the joint line daily, besides seven daily mixed goods and coal trains and special and relief trains not scheduled, and the maximum load per train being 45 wagons.

Another class of traffic which illustrates the industrial development due to the Great Eastern Railway's passage over the joint line is the fruit and flower traffic of Cambridgeshire and the Eastern Counties. During the period between May and October, 1909, no less than 13,000 tons of fruit were despatched to various towns in the North of England, 60,000 packages being despatched on one day from one station alone. A large portion of the fruit and flower traffic is conveyed by passenger train.

Dix reported "About 750 men are employed at [March] station, and... about 300 trains pass through or leave the station daily, 100 engines being stabled at March... Another class of traffic... is the fruit and flower traffic of Cambridgeshire and the Eastern Counties. During the period between May and October 1909, no less than 13,000 tons of fruit were despatched to various towns in the North of England, 60,000 packages being despatched on one day from one station alone."

There was also a steady flow of grain to distilleries in Scotland.