BOSSES at Britain's top container port today welcomed news that multi-million pound rail and road schemes to improve links to the terminal are to be brought forward.

BOSSES at Britain's top container port today welcomed news that multi-million pound rail and road schemes to improve links to the terminal are to be brought forward.

Schemes for the A12 and north London rail cargo lines will start earlier than planned to help ease congestion and boost business.

But there was no earlier start date for the much-needed £490m A14 project to improve the dual carriageway from Ellington to the north east of Cambridge with a new three-lane link and get rid of the bottleneck which currently brings traffic to a standstill.

Government announced £300m of road projects to be accelerated in addition to the £700m worth of brought-forward schemes outlined in the pre-Budget report.

Felixstowe port corporate affairs chief Paul Davey welcomed the news of improvements to the road and rail network.

He said: “Much of our freight traffic uses the north London line and the A12 is also very important to our customers and to other road users in this area and these improvements to the infrastructure are greatly needed and very good news.

“They both fall in line with the Eddington Report which said access to international gateways should be made a priority.

“We had been hoping that works on the A14 would also have been accelerated and it remains important that these start in 2010.”

The key projects for Felixstowe are:

Up to £60m to be invested in new traffic management measures to improve safety, reduce delays and tackle congestion along 54 miles of the A12;

£54m on improving performance and capacity on the north London rail link, the primary route for maritime traffic between the Port of Felixstowe and the Midlands, North West and Scotland, including doubling the line at Camden Road from two tracks to four.