The East and West Yorkshire Union Railway was promoted in 1883 to connect the Hull and Barnsley Railway at Drax with Leeds. The company was unable to raise the money it needed to build the line, and it substantially reduced its scope to connecting collieries around Rothwell with the existing main line network nearby. This was successful, with trains running from 1890, but the company decided it would find a way to connect to Leeds and operate a much truncated passenger service, from Rothwell. It sponsored the South Leeds Junction Railway to make a connection from Rothwell to the Midland Railway at Stourton; the SLJR was soon re-absorbed by the E&WYUR. The passenger service started on 4 January 1904 but it was a disastrous failure, and it was soon withdrawn from 1 October 1904.