Trains were hauled by company steam locomotives between the two towns, though private wagons and carriages were allowed. Cable haulage of freight trains was down the steeply-graded 1. The railway was primarily built to provide faster transport of raw materials, finished goods, and passengers between the Port of Liverpool and the cotton mills and factories of Manchester and surrounding towns.
Designed and built by George Stephenson , the line was financially successful, and influenced the development of railways across Britain in the s. During the Industrial Revolution , huge tonnages of raw material were imported through Liverpool and carried to the textile mills near the Pennines where water, and later steam power, enabled the production of the finished cloth, much of which was then transported back to Liverpool for export.
The proposed railway was intended to achieve cheap transport of raw materials, finished goods and passengers between the Port of Liverpool and east Lancashire , in the port's hinterland. There was support for the railway from both Liverpool and London but Manchester was largely indifferent and opposition came from the canal operators and the two local landowners, the Earl of Derby and the Earl of Sefton , over whose land the railway would cross.
The proposed Liverpool and Manchester Railway was to be one of the earliest land-based public transport systems not using animal traction power. The original promoters are usually acknowledged to be Joseph Sandars , a rich Liverpool corn merchant, and John Kennedy , owner of the largest spinning mill in Manchester.
They were influenced by William James. He advocated a national network of railways, based on what he had seen of the development of colliery lines and locomotive technology in the north of England.
