South Yorkshire Railway

The South Yorkshire Railway was a railway company with lines in the south of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England.

Initially promoted as the South Yorkshire Coal Railway in 1845, the railway was enabled by an act of 1847 as the South Yorkshire Doncaster and Goole Railway Company which incorporated into it the permitted line of the Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley, Wakefield, Huddersfield and Goole Railway south of Barnsley, the River Dun Navigation, and Dearne and Dove Canals; and had permission for a line from Swinton to Doncaster and other branches. On 10 November 1849 the first section of line opened between Swinton and Doncaster, with the remainder opening in the early 1850s.

In 1850 the company formally amalgamated with its canal interests, forming the South Yorkshire Railway and River Dun Company, in context generally referred to as the "South Yorkshire Railway".

As well as extensive colliery traffic, the company's tracks eventually supported a passenger service between Barnsley and Doncaster; a branch line from Wombwell to Sheffield through the Blackburn valley; and services beyond Doncaster to Thorne and Keadby.

The South Yorkshire Railway was absorbed by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway in 1864.

A company, named the "South Yorkshire Coal Railway", set out its plans in a prospectus in 1845. Its proposals were given as being "To connect the South Yorkshire coalfield with the existing and proposed main lines of railway, in connection with the canals and navigation of that district": Nothing further than to move coal from the area where it was mined to its major markets. These met with opposition in Parliament, principally from the North Midland Railway and the, still at proposal stage line of the Manchester, Midland and Great Grimsby Junction Railway which saw the South Yorkshire proposals as a rival to its own intentions. The opposition won the day and the South Yorkshire Coal Railway Bill was defeated.

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