The Wansbeck Railway was then promoted, with the intention of forming a connection between Reedsmouth on the Border Counties Railway and Morpeth. The commercial viability of this line was even more shaky—Lee says "a thinly-populated district without manufactures and with very few mineral resources"—than the Border Counties Railway, but it gave access to Morpeth, avoiding the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway altogether. If the Blyth and Tyne Railway could be befriended, then the desired access to Newcastle was secure—but by a very roundabout route.