Rail upgrade for expanding port

Capacity is to increase at Felixstowe's container port

Work to improve rail links to the expanding Port of Felixstowe has been given consent.

The Suffolk container port, already the UK's largest, is to double in size after expansion plans are completed in two years' time.

The Felixstowe Branch Line will have a double track to allow for the extra freight coming in and out of port.

The port said the resulting extra trains will take "hundreds of thousands of vehicles off the region's roads".

The Port of Felixstowe is unable to expand outside its boundaries so land inside the port is being redeveloped to increase its capacity.

The first phase of the project began last month which will create an additional 730m (791 yards) of deep-water quay.

The ports owner Hutchison Ports (UK) limited said the expanded port would create up to 1,500 new jobs.

Once completed, the expanded port will have four new deep-water berths equipped with 13 ship-to-shore gantry cranes.