The early history of the railway was coloured by concerns about Copper Cliff becoming a suburb of Sudbury. An earlier 1906 plan for a Sudbury, Copper Cliff, and Creighton Electric Railway that would have connected the two centres with the now-abandoned mining town of Creighton had been discarded after heavy opposition from Copper Cliff merchants, who feared the decline of the town's commercial core due to competition with Sudbury, which had over six times as many businesses. The same merchants also opposed the new plan, but were overruled by a vote by Copper Cliff ratepayers.