Bus will always beat rail between Malton and Whitby - probably by an hour. The rail line speed could get to 40mph, but that would make Pickering to Whitby still nearly 2 hours alone.
Whitby people don't associate themselves with York, its too far away - Teesside is much, much nearer and they tend to look to the north as the direction for 'town and city'. The Moors villages (no towns here....) like what they have they are now, thanks. Having said that we had to fight to keep the bus service, as there is too little demand for that from Nov to April, so no hope for a train service at all (even if you could demolish parts of Pickering and its infrastructure)
Picton to Battersby could provide a much faster link, but the demand - its just not there
Yet the number of events in Whitby seem to increase, as do the numbers going there. For example the Tour de Yorkshire seems like it could be a regular visitor to the town, and as I said earlier the WGW is attracting more and more people and in the last few years there have been so many people in attendance (many of them people just going to "Goth-gawp") that the swing bridge has been shut to traffic for fear of an accident. And Whitby is also becoming increasingly popular for weekend breaks & longer (many cottage leasing companies are becoming more flexible with the booking slots), and many of these visitors do not hail from the Teeside area and can just jump on an X93.
Maybe having a better rail connection such as the Picton link could also help promote the town for a least a couple months during the off-season too. I know some of the people in the area would prefer it not to happen, but economic reality is what it is. Whitby needs the tourist industry, otherwise an awful lot of jobs in the town would go.
Try rail to Scarborough and bus from there to Whitby - links at the railway stations at both ends.
Through ticketing on the 840 is already available.
Tried that, not a lot of fun if you are staying the week with suitcases to match and you are joining a number of others doing the same & other people visiting Whitby or simply commuting.
The 840 is a perfectly fine service, 2 hours from Whitby to York (or vice versa) is much quicker than any rail journey could be. The scenery is fantastic too. Try driving it by car and you will find it is 1.5 hours anyway. Whitby has plenty of income from the areas it really has in its catchment - which is NOT West Yorkshire - it is Teesside and the North East!
Maybe, but for the reasons stated above, its not exactly tourist friendly. Whenever there are events on in Whitby, these buses can get packed and rocking up with a load of suitcases when there's not a lot of room, having already traveled from another part of the country doesn't exactly appeal. Maybe if there was a coach operated service where you had suitable storage areas, but even then at times space would be limited.
It's often all too easy to say that there is no business case and point to the current infrastructure not being constantly rammed. But when the infrastructure isn't all that great, and certainly not geared up for the major part of the town's economy you perhaps need to look at it again. If a link from Picton could be re-established, with a South facing option, would it encourage more of Whitby's visitors to leave the long drive (which in itself is never going to get quicker, especially with the growing traffic, ask any Whitby resident what they think of the traffic issues) in favour of the train. Perhaps with some small speed improvements, a couple more passing loops and semi-"fast" services you could bring the time from York down to around that of the drive? Where would the money come from, well in part from government and North Yorkshire but didn't I read somewhere that the new potash mine development would be offering some funds which could possibly be used on line improvements? (Sorry I've only briefly seen a mention of this, happy to be corrected here)