Thousands of pounds can be spent on improvements to the historic Liskeard to Looe branch line thanks to grants from train operator GWR.

Devon and Cornwall Community Rail Partnership have been awarded £28,000 towards creating an App history of the Looe Valley Line

The project aims to explain the history of the Looe Valley Line through a series of short, modern, innovation videos triggered through GPS to be displayed on an app.

And Looe Town Council has been awarded £500 for a new community noticeboard at Looe station.

In other awards, Plymouth City Council has been given £65,550 to introduce three “Mayflower 400” heritage trails which will be part of the national Mayflower Heritage Trails project. The project will also install real-time passenger information, and design a phone app.

And Vintage Trains has £25,000 to re-design and fit out a heritage coach to be used to educate young people on the history and engineering of the GWR.

GWR is in the third and final year of the £2.25 million grant scheme. 

 Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership manager Richard Burningham, said: ‘Thanks very much to GWR for the grant which will help enable our lovely project celebrating the history and heritage of the scenic Looe Valley Line to happen. The line has such an interesting story and we look forward to making people more aware of it through the videos, app and other elements of the project.’