The Highland Railway saw the Fort Augustus line as a way for the NBR to reach Inverness, whether or not the scheme was sponsored by the NBR, and the Highland opposed it in Parliament, but the line secured its authorising Act on 14 August 1896. This renewed open hostility between the NBR and the Highland Railway and both proposed new schemes for a line between Inverness and Fort Augustus. The Highland Railway appeared to be gaining Parliamentary support at first (in the 1897 session), but eventually both schemes were thrown out.