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Whitby Second Platform Approval.

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fgwrich

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Following on from the news that the Swanage Railway is to benefit from the latest round of Goverment 'Seaside' spending, the North York Moors railway will soon be able to operate from it's own platform in Whitby station as well.

£3m boost for coast to bring over 200 new jobs

Published on Monday 11 February 2013 06:00

The North Yorkshire coast is to receive £3.4m to support schemes that will create more than 200 jobs directly and potentially hundreds more in the wider economy.

Scarborough Council will be given £2.6m, with the majority going on measures aimed at maximising economic opportunities from the proposed potash mine in the district and the construction of the Dogger Bank wind farm off the Yorkshire coast.

The projects are expected to create 206 jobs directly and help support 2,500 in the wider economy.

An £800,000 grant has also been secured by the North Yorkshire Moors Railway to invest in a second track and platform Whitby station.

The popular attraction will take on 15 new staff and expects the investment to create a further 50 jobs in local tourism businesses.

The money is coming from a Government fund aimed at helping grow the economies of seaside towns.

Derek Bastiman, Scarborough Council’s cabinet member for strategic planning and regeneration, said: “This grant represents a huge vote of confidence from The Department for Communities and Local Government in the work this council is doing to attract investment and jobs, and help retrain and upskill local people to ensure we deliver prosperity for the people of Whitby and the borough.

“The potash mine and offshore wind industry have the potential to completely transform the area and bring a new dimension to the local economy which for so long has relied heavily on tourism. Investing in the business park and its infrastructure, as well as people and their skills, will help ensure we are in the best possible position to capitalise for the benefit of our residents.”

Under the banner “Going for Growth”, Scarborough Council will invest the bulk of the money in a project to built three roads to unlock 30 acres for development at the Whitby Business Park.

The business park is close to the site for the proposed minehead for the potash mine south of the village of Sneaton. Sirius Minerals is looking to develop the mine which could eventually employ 1,000 with the construction phase also likely to employ 1,800 people.

The council is also lobbying companies that will be working on the Dogger Bank wind farm to locate operations at the business park.

Business will be helped to take on new engineering and construction apprentices with the council offering to pay the entire first year wages of around 200 trainees taken on by local companies.

The grant will also extend a job brokerage scheme that has helped 1,000 people find work in the last three years.

The money for the North Yorkshire Moors Railway completes the £1.4m it needs to fund investment at Whitby station that will allow it to increase services from three to five per day from April next year.

Philip Benham, NYMR’s general manager, said: “This is really exciting news, not only for NYMR, but also for the whole Whitby community. It reflects great confidence in the highly successful steam services operated by NYMR since 2007. It is also a hugely important boost for the future of the Esk Valley railway line.

“Fifty years ago the Beaching report proposed the withdrawal of all trains to Whitby. Now in NYMR’s 40th Anniversary year, how fitting to be announcing such a major expansion.”

The grants announced this morning are from the second round of the Government’s £24m Coastal Communities Fund.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: “It’s a missed opportunity if we don’t tap into the huge potential our coastal towns have to welcome new industries and to diversify their economies so they can become year-round success stories. We’ve seen enormous enthusiasm for this Government fund and had to make some difficult choices but the projects we’ve chosen will create thousands of jobs and help many start-up businesses.”

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at- ... -1-5398187
 
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STEVIEBOY1

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Again this is good news, there are infact a couple of other items on this forum already about the NYMR & Whitby, hopefully a run round loop will be possible there to speed up the steam operations at Whitby. :D
 

Ploughman

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The proposal is to reinstate the 2nd platform, replace the existing turnout into Bog Hall sidings with a new turnout into P2 and then reconnect Bog Hall with a connection from P2.
With a new run round loop within P2 as well.
 

ainsworth74

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Sorry I meant to leave a note. Post #9 was originally in a new thread and I've merged it into this one.
 

ryan125hst

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but is that a Regional Railways liveried Class 156 on the photograph of the above article?
 

Ploughman

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Looks like it and they do or did travel along that stretch of the Esk Valley line.

The work at Whitby is to reinstate a second platform with its own run round separate from Platform 1 which will still be used by Northern Rail services.
P2 will be used by NYMR services as well as any other operators services as required.
Bog Hall sidings currently used for run round purposes will have its access rearranged. Currently it is reached by reversing from P1 the proposed access will now be from P2.
Ownership will be retained by Network Rail.
 

DarloRich

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Looks like it and they do or did travel along that stretch of the Esk Valley line.

The work at Whitby is to reinstate a second platform with its own run round separate from Platform 1 which will still be used by Northern Rail services.
P2 will be used by NYMR services as well as any other operators services as required.
Bog Hall sidings currently used for run round purposes will have its access rearranged. Currently it is reached by reversing from P1 the proposed access will now be from P2.
Ownership will be retained by Network Rail.

correct ;)

Good news for NYMR and their services to Whitby and I also assume it will allow for some operational flexibility for Northern & any charter operators who serve Whitby.
 

scarby

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So then will they re-lengthen platform 2 - well surely they'll have to?
 

kylemore

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What about this Potash Mine employing 1000 people! Surely theres some work there for Railway?
 

ainsworth74

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What about this Potash Mine employing 1000 people! Surely theres some work there for Railway?

It's been looked at but as far as I'm aware they've given up on trying to get a railway into the site and they're going to be using a pipeline to take the potash to Teesside and then, I presume, either loading it onto ships for export or onto rail for transport within the UK.

Either way it doesn't look like the new mine will have a rail link.
 

lancastrian

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It is good news to see that finally the NYMR have got all the finance in place to build the much needed second platform at Whitby.

In Moors Line, the NYMR quarterly journal, it showed how the track-work was to be altered so that the second platform can be of real benefit to the NYMR. There will also be a run-round, release road between the tracks in platform's 1 & 2. This will mean that NYMR locomotives can run round their trains, without all the current performance.

Also the current run-round, which can only be accessed by backing the whole train into the loop and then, backing the whole train back into the platform, will be in future accessed from platform 2, so that any incoming charters can be held separate to both platforms, as not to cause any delays to either Northern Services to Middlesbrough, or the NYMR services to Pickering.

All that they need now is to have a second DMU added to the services between Whitby & Middlesbrough, so that the Esk Valley gets a decent service both ways, especially when the new station at James Cook Hospital in opened.

Otherwise the NYMR with 5 services into Whitby will be the most frequent services into that town, Northern only has 4 services at this time. As I often holiday near to Grosmont, I have used both services into Whitby and used the Esk Valley service to Middlesbrough. And the later really needs to be increased.
 

Midlandman

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Just got back from a visit to Whitby today. In this weeks Whitby Gazette is an article in which some members of the council express disappointment that the new platform will not mean more Northern services. It seems that some of these worthies may benefit from a short primer on how Britain's railways are now organised (if that's the word I'm looking for), but they do have a point. As it was the transport of schoolchildren that was supposed to be the factor behind the retention of the line, the services are operated for their benefit, which means that the first train out of town in the morning is 0850, making it effectively useless for commuters to Teesside.
Anyway, one of these councilors/rail activists rather sniffily remarked that 'the only people who will benefit are the North York Moors Railway'. Nobody in the article pointed out that, since it was a NYMR initiative, being done with a financial package that they had put together, then surely that was only logical?
Perhaps the importance of the issue locally can be judged from the fact that, although it was a full page article, headed with a photo of a Northern 156 in Whitby station, the paper had buried it on page 9 or 11 or thereabouts. Oh yes, and I know we're not going down this route again, but one of the people quoted has, apparently just started a petiton to demand the re-instatement of the rail link from Pickering to....oh, you know the rest.
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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Oh yes, and I know we're not going down this route again, but one of the people quoted has, apparently just started a petition to demand the re-instatement of the rail link from Pickering to....oh, you know the rest.

Perhaps the personage who has started this petition might well consider the idea so good to devote all his undoubted energies into convincing the good burghers of Whitby to revise their council tax budget to make the funding for this "dream" a reality in preference to any other pre-existing budgetary arrangement.

Has my forum signature been reactivated once again...:D
 

JohnCarlson

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Sitting here in my study in South Shields sipping a cuppa and awaiting the time to wander down to the pub I can easily see how appealing to the good people of Whitby the idea of a direct rail link to Whitby is, especially as they didn't what the thing to close in the first place. I could also add that even though the NYMR has done a good job with their existing line if events had fallen differently maybe they would have been better of with the Whitby to Scarborough line.

Personally I think one day the missing Pickering to Malton section will one day be put back in. I dont know who by and with whose money, but I am pretty sure it wont be with mine. I am perfectly willing to let the good people of Whitby fight that one out themselves.

Perhaps though it would be better to work first toward the building of a chord at Battersby which by my reckoning would knock fifteen minutes of the journey time. If the Festiniog diversion and WHR lines can be built by volunteer labour then this one should be easy.
 
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