A recent FOI submitted to North Yorkshire Council (NYC) highlights the arrangement with the Woodsmith Mine to provide funds for the improvement of the rail services along the Esk Valley rail line. It was as follows.
In 2015 North Yorkshire County Council was party to an S106 agreement with York Potash Ltd (at the time, currently Anglo American) for provision of a Rail Infrastructure Contribution. This was for “provision of up to £4,550,000 (index linked) towards the cost of infrastructure upgrades required to facilitate the Rail Services on the Middlesbrough to Whitby rail line”. It additionally stated “In the event that the Rail Infrastructure Contribution provides insufficient funds to procure an additional four services between Middlesbrough and Whitby to use its reasonable endeavours to investigate and apply for all alternative sources of funding”.
Please define
- Whether the payment of the agreed sum has been paid to North Yorkshire Council in line with these terms? If it has not been paid, please define when it will be paid by?
- What infrastructure upgrades have been facilitated by these funds?
- Whether the funding was indeed judged sufficient to to provide the desired 8 daily services between Whitby and Middlesbrough? If the answer is that it was not sufficient, whether NYC has applied for suitable additional funding to provide these 8 daily services?
- By which date the Whitby to Middlesbrough line will provide the 8 daily services?
The reply from NYC was as follows
- Partial payment of the S106 sums have already been drawn down by NYC and the current expectation is that the remaining funds will be drawdown this year.
- The S106 funds have facilitated local line speed enhancements and it is currently expected that the remaining infrastructure upgrades will be delivered over the next two years.
- Work on detailed design and costs on the planned infrastructure upgrades is being finalised this year, however the current expectation is that the S106 funds will be sufficient to facilitate the desired 8 daily services.
- The current expectation for a start of service date for the 8 daily services is June 2027 however that date is indicative and subject to the detailed design and costs work being finalised, and an agreed programme of works with Network Rail to deliver the infrastructure upgrades.
On the positive side (if it materialises, of course) going to 8 trains per day, particularly if they are timed to cater for people working on Teesside, will be a step forward. Though there are 3 years to wait!
What the response doesn’t say, is what the journey time can be reduced to; the “local line speed enhancements” on a line that is often referred to as one of the worst in the UK doesn’t really say much. The current journey time Whitby to Middlesbrough is 1h 30 after the “local line speed enhancements”, which leaves a lot to be desired.
We can but hope that the comments made by Northern Rail at the September 2023 WCN meeting of journey times dropping to nearer 1 hour after Battersby Junction changes turns out to be true.
