'Determined' - York and North Yorkshire mayor wants half-hourly train service between Scarborough and York

York and North Yorkshire’s mayor has said he is ‘determined’ to get a half-hourly train between Scarborough and York.

Mayor David Skaith has said he is “putting a lot of work” into getting a half-hourly train service from York to Scarborough.

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In an interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) earlier this month, the mayor said he had been holding meetings with Network Rail and train operators in the region “to discuss how we can get there”.

TransPennine Express currently runs a service approximately every hour between York and Scarborough and there have been calls to increase the number of services for several years across political parties.

TransPennine Express at Scarborough Railway StationTransPennine Express at Scarborough Railway Station
TransPennine Express at Scarborough Railway Station

“There is scope to do it,” said Mr Skaith, who is also looking at developing stations including Scarborough, Seamers, Thirsk, Malton, and Haxby so that the coast “can be part of that bigger picture”.

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Mr Skaith said that industry leaders “have said they want to stay in the region” and were eager to see improved transport links which would aid commuters and businesses.

He said: “If we want to be moving people over to the coast and obviously people coming away from the coast into the rural areas and into more urban areas, then having that transport connectivity is key.”

However, the mayor of the York and North Yorkshire combined authority emphasised that there was a need to improve transport links overall, including buses and means of active travel.

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“It’s that fully integrated system, actually, so if you get off a train, you need to know that you can actually go on from that journey on a bus, a coach or walk and cycle as well.”

Mr Skaith added: “We are in a position where we do want to take the dependency away from the car because if you want to move people en masse and in an affordable manner, the traditional car isn’t the way to do it.”

While he noted that “a lot of journeys in North Yorkshire are going to be carried out by car and that’s fine”, he added that residents should be given “a real opportunity and reliable alternative to that”.

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Around a third of bus services in North Yorkshire have seen timetable reductions or have needed extra financial support since the pandemic, partly due to rising operating costs and difficulties recruiting drivers.

A North Yorkshire Council report earlier this year stated that “the majority of the local bus support budget is used to provide rural services”.

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