§ COLONEL GUNTER (York, W. R., Barkstone Ash)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware that the loop line at Heck on the North Eastern Railway, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, although made, is not completed and open to traffic; that the inhabitants of Selby and Goole are very anxious that it should be, as it would be of great importance to the district and much facilitate communication between those towns; and if the Board of Trade have powers to compel the Company to complete and open the line in question?
§ MR. MUNDELLAI am informed by the North Eastern Railway Company that the line referred to by the hon. and gallant Member, which was authorised in 1864, but never opened for traffic, was intended 'to form a connection between the railways of the Lancashire and Yorkshire and North Eastern Railway Companies, that it was, however, found more 817 convenient to exchange the traffic between the two lines at other places, and that the necessity for the line had long ago ceased to exist. I am advised that the Board of Trade have no power to compel the Company to complete and open the line.