As of December 2019, six Northern Trains’s trains per day run the full return service between Middlesbrough and Whitby, one of which continues along the Durham Coast Line to. Four trains operate on Sundays, two of which continue to Newcastle. From April to early November, the heritage North Yorkshire Moors Railway runs services from Whitby to, running along the Esk Valley line to where they join the NYMR's own line. The NYMR's service consists of four or five arrivals and departures each day.
History
Whitby's original 'station' stood near to the end of the remaining platform, in the form of the offices, workshop and carriage shed of the Whitby and Pickering Railway, a single track horse worked line opened throughout in 1836. Its engineer was George Stephenson. In 1845, the W&P was taken over by the York and North Midland Railway and converted into a double track, steam worked, line. The Y&NM built the present Whitby station to the design of its architect George Townsend Andrews, who also designed the locomotive shed and the goods shed. Andrews' station included a fine 'Euston Truss' overall roof which was removed by British Railways in 1953 and replaced by the present awnings. In 1854, the Y&NM helped form the North Eastern Railway, who later added two more platforms to help deal with traffic from the other branch lines that served Whitby; the Esk Valley Line finally opened throughout to a junction at in 1865. The coast line from opened in 1883 and from Scarborough in 1885. Block signalling replaced the time interval system in 1876 and brought Whitby an unusual three storey signal box. In 1900, the NER authorised the installation of Tile Maps at 25 of their stations. Whitby is one of the 9 left to have their map still in situ and intact. The other eight are at Beverley, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Morpeth, Saltburn, Scarborough, Tynemouth and. The NER became part of the London and North Eastern Railway at the grouping of the railways in 1923 and the LNER became part of British Railways with the nationalisation of the railways in 1948. The only changes brought to Whitby were in locomotives, rolling stock and signalling; the basic structure remained unchanged. With the publication of the Beeching Report in 1963, change hung over Whitby station and its railways; the report recommended closure of all three lines that still served Whitby. There was strong local resistance to the closure of the three lines but in the event only one line, that up the Esk Valley to Middlesbrough was saved. It may seem strange that Whitby's 'main line', the largely double track line to Pickering, Malton with connections to York was not the one to survive but the saviour of the Esk Valley Line was the steep and narrow roads to the villages that it served, making replacement bus services impractical, especially for bringing school children to and from school in Whitby. With the closure of all but the Esk Valley Line, Whitby lost almost all of its staff and in time the pickup goods train was withdrawn; the remaining double track as far as was singled and the signal box closed and later demolished, as was the goods shed. It was only a case put by an ex-Whitby signalman that allowed retention of a basic facility for running round loco-hauled trains, so as to allow for excursions. This run-round loop was used by the regular NYMR services from 2007 until 2014. Platforms 3 and 4 were entirely removed and the site sold off, to be occupied by a supermarket. Platform 2 was cut back to what remains of the trainshed and its track removed, leaving only Platform 1 rail served. Apart from the roofless and truncated station, Whitby's only other surviving railway buildings are the two track engine shed, originally built by the York and North Midland Railway and extended by the NER and the neglected remains of one of the pair of Whitby and Pickering Railway 1835 weighbridge houses. In 2013, it was announced that an application for major development work around the station had been successful. This included the rebuilding and restoration of platform 2, to a somewhat longer length than the original. When the rebuilding of platform 2 was complete in 2014, the NYMR increased their service to four trains per day to and from Whitby. In December 2019, Northern increased their services from four trains per day to six.
