with the coming of the railways, the canal was leased to the manchester and leeds railway in 1843, but this was subsequently deemed to be illegal, and the aire and calder navigation with which the calder and hebble navigation connected at its eastern end, leased the canal from september 1847 until 1885. some of the locks were enlarged, but many were not, and having been designed for yorkshire keels, they remain among the shortest on the english connected waterways network, at . the navigation became a cul-de-sac in the 20th century, but with the burgeoning interest in leisure use of the canals, the trans-pennine rochdale canal was reopened in 1996 and the huddersfield narrow canal followed in 2001, resulting in the navigation becoming part of three pennine cruising rings.