St Ives £3m rail line upgrade completed ahead of G7

The line connects St Ives and Carbis Bay in Cornwall, where the UK will host the G7 summit this year

A £3m railway project has been completed ahead of June's G7 meeting of world leaders in Cornwall.

Network Rail said the upgrade to the line connecting St Ives and Carbis Bay is its largest track investment in the county since the 1950s.

The line reopened on Monday after the completion of the five week project.

Network Rail said the project would "undoubtedly" benefit the local community by increasing reliability and capacity on the line.

The G7 summit will be hosted at Carbis Bay between 11 and 13 June this year.

The upgrade involved laying 1.5 miles of track

Network Rail said the St Ives Bay line saw more than 660,000 journeys in 2019.

The upgrade involved laying 1.5 miles of track, installing 3,600 railway sleepers and more than 400 tonnes of ballast, the stones which support the railway.

Project manager Lee Hildreth said he was "delighted" to finish Cornwall's largest railway upgrade for 60 years, despite challenges posed by severe weather over the last month.

He said: "It is really pleasing to have finished this important work which will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the local community delivering improved reliability and reduced delays for passengers."

Derek Thomas, Conservative MP for St Ives, West Cornwall and The Isles of Scilly, said it was a "great honour" to welcome the G7 summit, which would focus on recovering from the coronavirus pandemic and "how we can deliver a low carbon green economy".

He said: "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."