Work to upgrade the rail line between Whitby and Middlesbrough is expected to start next year.
That's according to local councillor - Neil Swannick - who is also part of the Esk Valley Railway Development company.
Councillor Swannick says the work will enable more frequent services on the Esk Valley Line.
"Work will start in the first part of next year on the 7 million pounds worth of improvements on the line to enable extra train services to be put on between Whitby and Middlesbrough.
That line is not underused. It's just doesn't have enough services to meet the demand.
The increase in usage has been phenomenal through the last couple of years since COVID and it's a real positive that the section 106 money, which came from the planning consent given to Anglo-American, means that there was 7 million pounds available to make improvement, and those improvements will start in Whitby.
Councillor Swannick says the works will ultimately allow more services to run on the Whitby to Middlesbrough line and will include upgrades to points and the track.
"The points outside Whitby station are out of date and they need motorization so that they can be done remotely.
At the moment, the North Yorkshire Moors railway have to carry an extra man with, a high vis jacket who gets out and shifts the points manually. Motorized points will make that a lot more straightforward and faster.
There's going to be work at Battersby where as there's a sort of turnaround at the moment, and there's plans to improve that situation there. So it's straight through.
So there's quite a lot of work on that railway line going to take place. over the next few years, and that is funded by the 7 million pounds from the planning application which was granted to Anglo American for the mine.
Last year a report concluded that the Whitby to Middlesbrough train service is the worst in the country, despite ridership growing by 49%, more than the national average.
‘A new beginning’ , the report from specialist transport consultants Stantec, said 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 endorsed 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’ and claimed that 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.
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