Great Western Coffee Shop

will be going to Whitby for a few days very soon.

Surprised that there are only FIVE trains per day to the big City of Middlesbrough

Yet there are FIFTY ONE trains from Saltburn to Middlesbrough via Redcar

So if you ever visit Whitby and want away,then you have to option of getting the bus from whitby to saltburn and get the train to Middlesbrough

OR

stay on the bus all the way to Middlesbrough calling at  Redcar on the way through

Whitby had four rail routes before the cuts of the 1960s - to Scarborough and to Saltburn/Redcar along the coast, and to Pickering and to Picton on the main line from York to Sunderland.   The first three were the most major.  The fourth was the one that was partially retained because of (I think) the problems of replacing the train by buses in parts.  It now reverses at Battersby, from where it wanders to Middlesborough along a line that I don't believe was built to even serve Whitby in the first place!

From my quote above, an attempt made just a very few years ago to provide a service of more general use to the people of Whitby was abandoned this year.

The other (main?) factor I expect explains the different density of services is that the area served by the Saltburn services is a relatively densely populated part of the Teeside conurbation - Redcar alone has a population nearly three times that of Whitby.

By contrast, much of the area along the Esk valley served by the Whitby line is sparsely populated, so unlikely to generate much by way of passenger traffic.

Which ever route you take, you'll get some good countryside (well, once you are clear of urban Teeside) - I'd go for the Esk Valley line myself!