Esk Valley train service found to be ‘worst in the country’
- Despite this, passenger numbers up by 49%
- Available funding delayed for eight years
- Call for explanation and early implementation
The Whitby to Middlesbrough train service is the worst in the country, according to a report published today.
Yet despite this, ridership has grown by 49%, more than the national average. Each of the just five services a day along the Esk Valley line carry significantly more passengers than many other lines across the country with much better services.
And ridership is still growing. Latest official figures show that use of Great Ayton station grew by 23% in just the last year, emphasising the increasing role of the line as part of the Tees Valley rail network, although Whitby itself remains by far the busiest station on the line.
A major mistake
‘A new beginning’ , the report from specialist transport consultants Stantec, says that the decision to slash the service by half just before rail privatisation as an economy measure was ‘a major mistake’ and as a result the limited service does not now meet the needs of any of the several markets it is intended to serve.
It endorses the view of both the Commons Transport Committee and the Lords Committee on Coastal Deprivation that the poor train service to and from Whitby is ‘An impediment to the further growth of tourism and social and industrial regeneration’.
Immediate priorities
Immediate priorities must be to provide additional morning and midday services, more trains on Sundays – now one of the busiest days on the line – and reducing line occupation by the heritage North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
Without these, the report says, services will remain highly constrained and will not meet the needs of the communities it strives to serve.
Early improvements to provide up to four more services each day would be possible if the £7 million of ring-fenced private sector funding specifically awarded by the then York Potash for infrastructure improvements, now eight years ago but still unspent, were to be employed.
Major concern
In an introduction to the report, Community Rail Partnership Chairman Alan Williams says that ‘It is a major concern that this funding remains unspent with still no apparent agreement between North Yorkshire Council and Network Rail,’ and urges ‘early implementation of the already funded ‘quick wins’ identified in the report ‘which our communities are so keen to see progressed’.
The train is the ‘local bus’
The Report notes that for many of the Esk Valley villages, where there is no other public transport, the train also acts as the ‘local bus’ and recommends development and use of new ‘request stop’ technology to speed up services while maintaining calls at lesser-used stations.
In the longer term, the proposed construction of a new curve at Battersby should be explored further, avoiding the need for all trains to reverse there, thus reducing overall journey times by up to ten minutes.
Seeking support
Given their recent calls for better public transport links to the coast, the Community Rail Partnership is now seeking support for early action from both North Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith and new Scarborough and Whitby MP Alison Hume.
Download a pdf copy of the report here:
A New Beginning Esk Valley Railway
