Yorkshire Coast Community Rail Partnership (CRP) hosted their annual Santa Special train trip on Saturday 6 December.

For the first time this year, the partnership ran two special festive trains – the 10:14 Brough to Hull and the 11:21 Hull to Scarborough.

This was thanks to support from Hessle and Ferriby town councils, who were both keen for their towns to be included in the event. The town councils supported with the promotion of the events, helping the carriages to reach full capacity with happy families travelling especially to meet Santa.

Nine volunteers handed out tubes of sweets to all the children and mince pies to the adults, and Santa made his way up and down the carriages to welcome people on board. The CRP also designed and printed Christmas activity sheets based on the Yorkshire Coast Line, which proved popular among the youngsters as they enjoyed their journey.

After arriving at Hull, Santa was kept busy having his photo taken with families before grabbing a short break and heading off to Scarborough to provide festive cheer for more families.

Rachel Osborne, Yorkshire Coast CRP officer, said: “We love doing the Santa Special trains – it is magical to see the joy on the children’s faces as they meet Santa, and it is a great way to encourage families to try the train.

“It was a fantastic atmosphere on both trains, and much credit to Santa and the volunteers who managed get up and down the train many times at record speed in order see everyone, which was not an easy task.

“Special thanks go to Santa, our volunteers and to Northern for funding and supporting the event.”

Learn more about Northern’s work in the community here.

Keep up to date with future news, projects and events from Yorkshire Coast CRP via their website.