To the east the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway had opened its main line in 1852; there was a station at Craven Arms, named after a nearby inn that had been a staging post for the coaches. To the west, lay the Oswestry and Newtown Railway, which was promoted in 1859: its main purpose was to connect a group of small railways at Newtown with the English railway network, by way of Oswestry. The O&NR had a Montgomery station, but it was two miles from the town it served. That part of the line opened in 1862.