The connection was authorised in 1867, but the BPRP was in financial difficulties, and so unable to complete the line. It entered into negotiations with the MR and Great Western Railway, the latter now the owner of the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway. However, fierce competition between the GWR and the MR posed a threat to the Port of Bristol. The MR had no access over the GWR routes into either Bristol Harbour or Avonmouth docks, and so drew up options to either acquire the Avonmouth Docks Co., or build new docks on the opposite bank at Portbury. The result was that in 1884, the Bristol Corporation bought Avonmouth Docks and the BPRP to control port facilities in the area.