 Prominent among the promoters was Samuel Morton Peto who had designs on creating a railway from London to Norfolk to rival the Eastern Counties Railway, by a chain of local schemes.The Y&HR was to connect with the East Suffolk Railway at Haddiscoe, and there were to be dock branches at Yarmouth; the main terminal there was later named Yarmouth South Town.In fact the company was absorbed by the East Suffolk Railway on 23 July 1858, before the line was completed