most of the stations were located near to the landing stages which the steam packets used, and the railway did all it could to draw passengers away from the river. this included the provision of fourth-class carriages, with fares set at a halfpenny per mile, in 1850, and by 1863, the steam packet boats had ceased operation. freight traffic also declined, with coal passing through the grand sluice dropping from 19,535 tons in 1847 to 3,780 tons in 1857. nevertheless, the railway company had to maintain the river, and in 1871, spent £5,000 on making bardney lock deeper by at the request of the drainage commissioners. the gnr leased the navigation to the great northern and great eastern joint committee in 1882, and in 1897, by which time the manchester, sheffield and lincolnshire railway had become the great central railway, they built a large warehouse beside brayford pool, with a transhipment dock next to it. total traffic on the river had fallen to 18,548 tons in 1905, and averaged 5,870 tons during the years of the first world war, mainly general merchandise and agricultural produce. with the nationalisation of the waterways following the second world war, the navigation eventually became the responsibility of british waterways as a result of the transport act 1962, and since 2 july 2012 has been managed by the canal & river trust.