 The GER were still in favour of the line, and authorisation to construct it was enshrined in the Great Eastern Railway Act 1881.As well as carrying passengers, it was always intended as a freight line as well, and to this end it was built to standard gauge, with bull-head rails, rather than the tramway rails favoured by many British tramways.This allowed standard goods wagons to run along it, without the need to tranship goods into wagons suitable for operating on tramway rails.