 High turnpike fees, and the inability to access the Aire and Calder Navigation due to competing interests owning land on the few miles to the canal meant that the sale of coal to nearby Leeds was uneconomic.Circa 1833, surveying of the line began, by William Harker and William Walker; at the same time, the Leeds and Selby Railway was under construction, and Gascoigne, also a shareholder in the Leeds and Selby had obtained favourable rates for transport of coal to Selby on that line.The route was designed on a falling gradient from Garforth to Aberford, with a maximum gradient of 1 in 72 at the Sisters pit, horse traction was the motive power.