‘New beginning’: Councillors to discuss increased services on Whitby to Middlesbrough Esk Valley railway line

The Esk Valley Community Railway’s proposal for faster and more frequent services on the Middlesbrough to Whitby line will be discussed by councillors at a meeting on Thursday, October 3.

Members of the Scarborough and Whitby area constituency committee will be presented with a report calling for “a new beginning” for the “essential” Esk Valley Line.

It calls on councillors to provide political support for the use of existing funds for “quick wins” including two additional middle-of-the-day services and allowing lesser-used stations to become ‘request stops’ to speed up services.

The service on the 34-mile line, which encompasses 17 stations – 10 of which are in the North York Moors National Park – was reduced by half before privatisation by “removing morning commuter and evening services”.

This is “now widely seen as a major mistake” according to the report which states that the “current service is the worst in the country”.

According to the Esk Valley Railway, there has been a 49 per cent increase in ridership despite cuts in services, and the growth of Whitby in the past two decades has meant that “the service does not meet the needs of the communities it serves”.

Whitby is the busiest station on the line and an increased service would bring commercial, tourism, and social benefits, the report states.

While Sunday services have been restored, as have evening services, and a new morning commuter service is set to start next year, the report urges greater action.

The Esk Valley Railway has been allocated £7m in S106 developer contributions, but according to the report “after eight years there is still no North Yorkshire Council and Network Rail agreement on implementation”.

In the longer term, the report has called for the full replacement of the “restrictive Victorian Token signalling” which it says could “more than double the current services, but Network Rail says nothing is planned until the 2030s”.

In the meantime, the proposal suggests “quick wins” using the funding for two extra services in the middle of the day, more Sunday services, introducing request stops, and using technology to limit the number of times train crew need to walk on the railway line.

The Esk Valley Railway’s report urged councillors to “enable the year-round eight train service that the communities along the Esk Valley say they want and have been waiting for”.