The new undertaking was not a financial success, with income failing to match expenditure. The Company was unable to repay the £50,000 loan, and so in 1842 the Exchequer Bill Loan Commissioners took control of the navigation, and sold it to Sir Samuel Morton Peto, a developer who wanted to build railways along its banks. The line from Reedham to Lowestoft runs parallel to the cut and effectively forms the south western bank. Although maintained for navigation, the cut was owned by a series of railway companies for the next hundred years.
