The "Carlisle Journal" repeatedly criticised the management of the M&CR and frequently published letters airing the grievances of the travelling public; "almost daily public complaints of want of accommodation, of irregularity, of notorious incivility somewhere, as well as mismanagement everywhere" according to one correspondent. Reporting on the first train to run from Carlisle to Workington, the "Carlisle Journal" remarked that those used to travelling on the Maryport line would not be surprised to hear that the train set off a quarter of an hour late; relating further mishaps it talked of "the cause of all the bungling on this line -"the want of system"" Even shareholders were disenchanted ; their half-yearly meeting in August 1846 heard allegations of open drunkenness of on-duty railway employees going unchecked. Hence the following advertisement: