1844—MARCH 19—The Mayor presided at a very respectable gathering of tradesmen of the city in the Guildhall, and Mr. F. T. Elgie made a statement of the proposal by the Great Western Company to construct what is now known as the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway, and requested the support of the citizens to the scheme. Mr. W. S. P. Hughes said the Grand Connection Railway would answer all the purposes of the city of Worcester, and that was to be brought before Parliament again immediately, with every prospect of success. A resolution in favour of the line proposed by Mr. Elgie was, however, carried unanimously. The merits of the two lines were discussed at a public meeting at Kidderminster, on the 4th of April, at which Mr. Elgie and Mr. Hughes supported their respective schemes, and the Oxford line had a majority in the meeting of three to one. 1844—MAY 9—Another railway meeting was held in the Guildhall this day, with the Mayor in the chair, to support one or other of the schemes for connecting Worcester with London. Mr. Elgie and Mr. Brunel appeared for the Oxford line, and Mr. Taunton and Mr. Addison for a line from Worcester through Evesham and Leamington, to join the London and North Western Railway. This was to be only a single line of rails. Mr. Brunel assured the meeting that the Oxford line was supported by the Great Western, and that £1,000,000 would be sufficient for its construction. Mr. Hughes, on behalf of the promoters of the Grand Connection Railway, said the cost of the line from Worcester to Wolverhampton alone would be above a million; and proposed, as an amendment, that it would be premature to express an opinion in favour of any particular line till they had more details before them. The meeting, however, almost unanimously expressed itself in favour of the Great Western project.