The GNR agreed to sponsor the reduced scheme and subscribe half the capital; the GNR was partly motivated by the belief that the rival Midland Railway would step in, getting access to Halifax, if the GNR held back. Accordingly the Bradford and Thornton Railway Act was passed on 24 July 1871, sponsored by the GNR, and the undertaking was transferred to and vested in the GNR by Act of 18 July 1872. The authorised construction was of line between St Dunstan's, Bradford, and Thornton. The junction at St Dunstan's was to be a triangle joining the existing GNR connecting line between Hammerton Street Junction and the Mill Lane Junction, approaching the L&YR Exchange station: this would allow direct running towards the L&YR station and also towards Laisterdyke and Leeds. (There were to be no platforms on this west-to-east side of the triangle.) In addition there was to be a short branch to Brick Lane, on the west side of Bradford, where a goods station was to be established, named City Road.