A bus route used by dozens of workers on the Ransomes Europark industrial estate has been suspended because roadworks have made it impossible for vehicles to keep to schedules.

That is forcing passengers to walk up to three quarters of a mile to catch their bus home from the John Lewis store at Futura Park.

Work started on November 20 to improve the junction between Nacton Road, the Havens and the A14 to increase the capacity. It is due to continue until Christmas.

However during the work, the lanes have been reduced and the already-serious rush-hour congestion in the area has become much worse.

Now Ipswich Buses have tweeted to warn their passengers that there will be no evening rush-hour services running through Ransomes Europark while the work continues. The buses only run through the industrial estate during the morning and evening rush-hours.

A spokesman for Ipswich Buses said: “As a result of road works, what is usually a 10 minute journey time around Ransomes Europark is now taking up to an hour, so we have had to take the decision to suspend services in Ransomes Europark after 6pm. “We have not taken this decision lightly and have tried altering our routes but to no avail, with passengers telling us they have had to wait for up to half an hour in the freezing cold.

“Passengers can still use the Waitrose/John Lewis stop and we do apologise for the inconvenience caused but this is outside our control. As soon as the road works are complete we will resume our normal service.”

The work is being carried out for Suffolk County council, which accepted there would be disruption while it was taking place.

It is the final stage of improvements between the A14 junction with Nacton Road and the junction between Felixstowe Road and Ransomes Way at Warren Heath to try to improve traffic flow.

Paul West, Suffolk County Council’s cabinet member for Ipswich, said: “The works being carried out are part of our long term improvements to the highway network in the town. We accept there is unavoidable disruption whenever the work is taking place and we do realise that it does cause inconvenience to people in the short term.

“However, any short term disruption will be offset by the long term improvement that this additional lane will bring”