There's free bacon sandwiches to be had as an extra train launches on the Whitby to Middlesbrough railway.
The new early 7.24am service is in use from Monday, departing from Whitby with the first 50 passengers getting the freebie.
The group have been campaigning for extra trains since 2019, but previous efforts were derailed by Covid.
The chair of the Esk Valley Rail Development Company is Pete Myers:
"What our purpose in life is is to promote the link between Middlesborough and Whitby. [It's a] very important link in both directions. And to improve the service on it. And Monday sees an extra service and most important really is the time of day of that service, because it enables people, certainly people from Whitby, but equally people from along the valley and the moors to visit Middlesborough and commute.
"The point for both is education and work. So it's really important. It's really, the first stage in what will hopefully be a much-improved timetable. But this is an important stage."
Pete adds it's been a hard slog but there is an end goal in mind:
"It's not as simple as it might be to put extra trains on, but we've always campaigned for eight trains per day and what that enables, a timetable like that, is people to make serious journeys, especially to places like James Cook Hospital, which is so important. Many people from the Esk Valley and indeed from Whitby, use James Cook as their local hospital.
"It's got a railway station right on the line, right in the hospital. So it is obviously the way to go, but without eight trains a day, it just isn't really practical. There's currently a huge gap in the afternoon, which we've got to fill up. That's our next step."
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