Whitby to York Rail Link

Aforementioned 'wibble and froth', found in this group for anyone who has Facebook access, isn't blocked and fancies challenging the basis for the campaign:

 

Trains are going to need to be travelling faster than 40mph to clear the public toilets, Lidl, and joiner's works which Kipling says won't need to be demolished. And where does he propose to put the aircraft carrier-style ski jumps?

 

Not quite Lidl is to one side of the former running line on the old "land sale" [coal yard] area. Though as you say Bramblewick [part of] the Joinery in particular the "lean to" extension beside the old Pickering MPD, public toilets and not forgetting the public car park too would have to go.

 

Lidl's foreign though, so your friendly UKIP candidate is bound to be keener on pulling that down than on destroying a local business. Or isn't he?

 

Indeed that's an idea a slight devation round the Joinery, through Lidls' and if done right avoiding the loo too. Mind you as for a local business/employer, Lidl is to now and at least employing local folk in Ryedale.

 

His cronies claim to have identified a replacement route round the edge of Pickering that would join the NYMR somewhere close to New Bridge. I don't know if they appreciate the implications of that in terms of public inquiries, TWOs etc. I very much doubt there would be no opposition - and it still leaves level crossings to be built over two busy A roads.

 

Lidl has also been good for shoppers in Pickering, as the Co-op got away with charging over the odds for far too long.

 

Unbelievable - yet none of those pontificating about how 'they alone know what is best' for the NYMR and the local area have the guts to post and debate anywhere other than their own FB groups, where any dissent is deleted and the dissenter banned...

Funny, that...

Anyway, who is looking forward to the tilting trains powering through the curves on the Moors? Anybody?

 

Sea sickness pills anyone!

 

On a more serious note, and this is a big thing, note how the 'spin' makes it sound as though if (when) this all falls in a heap, it would all be the 'fault' of the NYMR for being, well, 'intransigent' and 'un-cooperative'. This bunch must REALLY hate the NYMR, but why?

 

Exactly Mark these characters could/would cause no end of bother for not just the Moors, as mud sticks no matter what. But as has been said previously other serious campaigns to re-instate other lines up and down the land. From what I've read over the years about the Waverley Route, the "supporters group" of the Border Union Railway [fronted by the late Bob Symms] were a major stumbling block for the Railway Company. What with their [the Supporters Group] bickering on what stock to go for and the prospective livery.... Midland Region of British Rail had lined up a selection of suitable stock, locomotives, carriages & wagons etc. Granted as things turned out Scottish Region had been leant on by Whitehall to close the route, as all barr about 5 miles was north of the Border. The carrot and stick being to "loose" some mileage before Whitehall made cash available to extend the electrification of the West Coast Main line North from Crewe to Carlisle and onto Glasgow.

 

My guess is that they don't like tourists.

 

What an array of amusing Facebook sites, there is even a spoof website now. Neither of the two "real" or "original" sites have that many followers - it's a shame that people get drawn in.

Wouldn't it be easier to reinstate the line from Whitby to Scarborough? I'll get my coat

 

Indeed. The original page trying to get the link restored had over a thousand followers - many of whom, I suspect, were 'normals' who didn't grasp what was proposed to be effectively destroyed. Now look at the numbers on the new pages...

Coat not needed - that point has already been made. Gallows Close tunnel to reopen, Sainsburys to move, the sheltered accommodation at Scalby to demolish, the route through gardens just north of Scalby station to reclaim, Ravenscar Tunnel approaches to clear, plus reclaim the station site at Cloughton, Hayburn Wyke, Robin Hoods Bay & Hawkser. Oh, and the level crossing on the Whitby-Scarborough road just south of Hawkser to replace...

 

Oh, that's easy. Relay as a tramline, diverting to a new route along the Burniston coast road, over a new bridge across the beck at Scalby Mills, then down to Peasholm and up Columbus Ravine and Northway to the station.

I'm kidding.

 

You might well be, and rightly so but that might not stop some muppet from starting a campaign group...

 

That list of unrestored loco's they posted up was so far out of date it just went to show how out-of-touch they are with the heritage scene.

 

Rebuild the North Bay Railway as standard gauge and it will be easy! ;-)

 

Mercifully, it has all gone quiet for the moment, although at some point I expect that the "feasibility study" that no-one will get to see will suddenly be announced to have found that everything is hunky-dory and that construction is about to begin! I don't think these clowns have any grasp of what is actually involved, so yes they could be that naïve!