More trains from York to Scarborough welcomed as ‘brilliant’ news
The announcement of two additional train services in the morning and evening from Scarborough to York has been heralded as a ‘brilliant day for Scarborough’.
TransPennine Express currently operates one service per hour on the York-Scarborough route, but from December 2028, there will be two additional services in the morning and evening.
Announcing the Government’s backing for the extra services at Scarborough Station’s platform three, elected Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, David Skaith, said: “It’s been something I’ve been pushing for pretty much since the first day I came into office.
“Improving the connectivity from the coast to York is absolutely imperative for the jobs, for opportunities, and to just improve that time because at the minute with the hourly service, people just don’t commit to it, and obviously they jump in the car, which is completely understandable.”
Asked about the timeline for more half-hourly trains to be introduced, the mayor said: “Obviously, we will address that and see how successful this is, and then we’ll be going back to Government, as we are all the time, to press the importance of having more services.”
TransPennine Express, which operates the service, said it was recruiting additional drivers and conductors.
There will be additional services at 6.35am and 5.35pm from York to Scarborough, as well as extra trains from Scarborough to York at 7.30am and 6.30pm.
Last month, TPE said the route had seen record passenger numbers in the financial year 2024-25.
More than 263,000 train journeys were made between York and Scarborough, compared with 66,000 in 2020-21, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chris Jackson, TPE’s Managing Director, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We recognise that it is certainly a mayoral ambition to run half-hourly trains through the day.
“We need to recognise that we have a finite number of trains that need to operate all across the north, and it’s about balancing capacity where we know we have the demand.”
He described the announcement as “the right approach for now”, adding: ”Test this case from December 2028, and if we do get the customer numbers that we expect, we can build the case for further enhancement in frequency going forward.”
The service will be one of the first services run under Great British Railways, the new name for nationalised rail services in the UK.
Alison Hume, the MP for Scarborough and Whitby, said it was a “brilliant day for Scarborough” and that she felt “happy because we’re in a station that’s being restored, bringing back pride to the town, and so we need a train service that matches the splendour of our wonderful station”.
Asked whether she was disappointed by the speed of implementing more frequent services, she said: “One of the things I’ve learnt since being an MP is that things take a lot longer than perhaps I would like, but we are having those dialogues, and we’re going to keep pushing.
“TPE wants to see change; we all want to see change, so it’s a case of working together and making it happen as soon as possible.
She added: “Rome wasn’t built in a day, we’re improving services at the beginning and the end of the day, and I’m going to continue to push to improve them throughout the day.”