One of Cornwall's busiest stretches of railway line has re-opened after a £3million upgrade.
Over the past five weeks, Network Rail has completed its biggest track investment on the St Ives Bay line in Cornwall since the 1950s, renewing the track between Carbis Bay and St Ives.
Carbis Bay is set to be in the spotlight this June with the arrival of world leaders including US President Joe Biden for the G7 Summit.
Derek Thomas, MP for St Ives West Cornwall and The Isles of Scilly, said: “I have the great honour of welcoming the G7 summit later this year and the focus will be recovering from Covid and how we can deliver a low carbon green economy.
“That is why the investment in the St Ives Bay line is so welcome and so important because all of us will be thinking about reducing journeys on road and how we can use the railway more.”
The railway line reopened on February 8 after work finished to lay around 1.5 miles of new track and install 3,600 new sleepers and over 400 tonnes of new ballast - which is the stones that supports the track.
Network Rail engineers worked day and night to complete the work and to minimise disruption to residents living near to the railway, electric & solar lighting was used which is completely silent, uses no diesel and produces no CO2 emissions.
Lee Hildreth, Network Rail project manager, said the work on the St Ives bay line marks the biggest track upgrade on this line for over 60 years.
“This important work will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the local community by helping to provide a more reliable railway for passengers in Cornwall.
“We would like to thank the local community for their patience while we have completed this work and look forward to welcoming passengers back onboard.”
Richard Burningham, Chair of Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership, said: “We greatly welcome Network Rail’s investment in the St Ives Bay line which is a really important for the local economy, particularly at St Ives and Carbis Bay but for west Cornwall more widely.
“It’s a very busy line – in 2019 more than 660,000 journeys were made on the line – and it will hopefully be just as busy, if not busier, when Covid restrictions are lifted.”
