Whitby - Transport

Transport

Whitby is situated on the A171 road from Scarborough to Guisborough which originally passed over the swing bridge. A high level bridge over the Esk Valley was built in 1980 to avoid the bridge and ease congestion in the town centre. The A174 accesses coastal towns to the north and the A169 crosses the moors to Pickering. Whitby is served by the Yorkshire Coastliner bus line, operating from Leeds, Tadcaster, York, Scarborough, Bridlington, Pickering and Malton with connections beyond Yorkshire. Arriva runs bus services connecting Whitby to Scarborough and Middlesbrough. The nearest airport, about 45-mile (72 km) miles from Whitby, is Durham Tees Valley Airport, which has a regular service from Amsterdam, Schipol airport.

The town is served by Whitby railway station which is the terminus of the Esk Valley Line from Middlesbrough operated by Northern Rail. It was formerly the northern terminus of the Whitby, Pickering and York line, and in 2007 the North Yorkshire Moors Railway began a summer service between Pickering and Whitby operated by steam locomotives. The Scarborough and Whitby Railway following a scenic route along the coast was built in 1885 requiring construction of the red brick Larpool Viaduct across the Esk Valley into Whitby. The line closed as a result of the Beeching axe in 1965 and the trackbed is used as a footpath, bridleway and by cyclists. The Whitby, Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway, had a station at Whitby West Cliff and ran close to the cliffs to the north of the town. It opened in 1883 and closed in 1958.

The coastal section of the 110-mile (180 km) Cleveland Way National Trail passes through Whitby.

The Port of Whitby is strategically placed for shipping to Europe, especially Scandinavia, and is capable of handling cargoes of grain, steel products, timber and potash. Vessels of up to 3,000 tonnes deadweight tonnage are received at the wharf, which can load or unload two ships simultaneously. As of 2004 54,000 square feet (5,000 m2) of dock space is used to store all-weather cargo and there ia a 17,000 square feet (1,600 m2) warehouse for weather-critical cargoes.