The Chester and Birkenhead Railway had assumed friendly relations with the Chester and Crewe Railway (C&CR), and it depended on the C&CR for access to the railway network. During the construction phase of the C&CR it simply ran out of money, and on 1 July 1840 it was taken over by the Grand Junction Railway. The GJR was in close partnership with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and were discouraged from collaborating with the Chester and Birkenhead, which the L&MR regarded as a competitor, so this was a serious setback; a number of collaborative schemes at Chester between the two companies were now unlikely to be possible. Each company would have its own station at Chester, although there would be a connecting line by-passing both. After the Chester–Crewe line was opened on 1 October 1840, the GJR train times at Chester were contrived to avoid any convenient change of trains to the C&BR, and this went as far as the Irish mails having to be carried across the street in Chester from one station to the other, even though there was a through track.
