York to Scarborough Line

York to Scarborough Line
Scarborough Railway Bridge, York.
Overview
Locale	North Yorkshire Yorkshire and the Humber York Scarborough, North Yorkshire
Operation
Owner	Network Rail
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

York to Scarborough Line

Legend S&WR to Scalby Falsgrave Tunnel Scarborough Central Falsgrave Junction Scarborough Londesborough Road Washbeck Viaduct Scarborough Mere(proposed) Seamer Yorkshire Coast Line Forge Valley Line Ganton Weaverthorpe Heslerton Knapton Pickering Branch Line Rillington Line to Pilmoor Malton & Driffield Railway Malton Derwent Viaduct (River Derwent) Huttons Ambo Crambeck Goods Station Castle Howard Kirkham Abbey Howsham Barton Hill Flaxton Strensall Strensall Halt Haxby York to Beverley Line Foss Islands Branch Line Scarborough Bridge (River Ouse) ECML (northbound) York ECML (southbound)

The York to Scarborough Line runs between the city of York, England, and the town of Scarborough. Towns and villages served along the way are Malton, Norton-on-Derwent and Seamer.

History

The line was built by George Hudson's York and North Midland Railway and opened on 7 July 1845. The line was constructed remarkably quickly by the standards of the time, taking just one year and three days to complete the 42-mile route. This feat was possible because the Y&NMR decided against the more costly and time-consuming option of building a tunnel through the Howardian Hills south of Malton. Instead the chosen route meanders with the River Derwent for around four miles, creating a slower but more scenically pleasant experience for passengers

The new railway included a 6-mile branch from Rillington to Pickering that connected with the horse-worked Whitby and Pickering Railway which the Y&NMR immediately proceeded to take over and upgrade for steam traction.

Most of the intermediate stations on the line were closed to passengers in September 1930 as the number of excursion and holiday trains going straight through to Scarborough during that period meant that the line was too busy to accommodate local services. The closed stations retained their goods facilities and were maintained for occasional passenger use by excursion trains until the 1960s.

Modern

There are currently plans to re-open the stations at Haxby and Strensall due to the growth of population in those areas. There have been suggestions to re-open these stations since 1990 when it was pointed out that if they were inside a metropolitan county, then they would be re-opened very quickly. In January 2009 funding to re-open Haxby station was confirmed but the Strensall plan has yet to come to fruition.

In 2014, work started on replacing the 1840s built bridge that carries the railway over the River Ouse. Network Rail spent £6 million on the entire project and used boats and pontoons floated on the River Ouse to reach the bridge. The new bridge opened to traffic on 23 February 2015.

The route has 89 level crossings between York and Scarborough; 12 are supervised, 10 automatic and 67 are user worked crossings. All supervised and automatic crossings and the residual 7 signal boxes en route will be closed and control handed over to the Rail Operating Centre in York by 2025.

Services

Services operated along this line are run by TransPennine Express. Services are roughly hourly and operate to and from either York, Manchester or Liverpool with a reduced service on Sundays. This is part of the North TransPennine route.

Rolling stock on this line has consisted almost entirely of Class 185 DMUs since early 2007.

East Midlands Trains also run occasional summer services.

Scarborough also sees summer specials from York, hauled by the Flying Scotsman. However, as the Flying Scotsman is not due to be released from its overhaul until 2011, the seaside specials have been known to be hauled by any other available steam locomotives at York such as 60009 'Union of South Africa'.

There is also talk of reinstating the pre-1965 link to Pickering to connect the North Yorkshire Moors Railway to the national network from its southern end, Allowing trains from Malton and beyond to reach Whitby. Such a move has been considered but does not seem likely for the foreseeable future.

Incidents

185133 is approaching York station on the old railway bridge over the River Ouse. The service is for Liverpool Lime Street.

On 3 February 2009, a car hit the back of a train passing over Knapton level crossing. The driver was taken to hospital, but he was not kept in. There were no casualties on the train. The level crossing is an AHBC - Automatic Half Barrier Crossing.

References

• Details of proposals to construct halt at Scarborough Mere