 Leeds and the surrounding district was a major centre of importance to the GNR, and to enable its trains to reach it, the GNR had to make agreements with other, competing, lines, and to run by a rather roundabout route via Knottingley and Methley.The Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds Railway had been opened in 1857, and was worked by the Great Northern Railway; this gave the GNR a direct line from Wakefield to Leeds, but the gap from Doncaster to Wakefield remained, necessitating running on the lines of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.The GNR had repeatedly submitted Parliamentary Bills seeking authorisation for its own Doncaster to Wakefield line, and these had repeatedly been thrown out; the most recent was in 1861.