There were two interlinked railways on the south shore of the Solway Firth. The Port Carlisle Dock and Railway Company was opened in 1854, following the route of a former canal, intended to connect Port Carlisle, to which sea-going ships could navigate, with the city of Carlisle. The Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway and Dock Company was built as an extension of the Port Carlisle line, opening in 1856, because silting of the Solway was making Port Carlisle unusable.