ONE of the first businessmen to import goods through the DP World superport says he had to use the new rail line because the roads are not good enough.

David Mawer, director of Hillebrand Group, which imported the first container of wine through the superport, said it was a good job London Gateway has added a second rail line to take cargo to London.

DP World, which owns the superport in Stanford-le-Hope, has funded a new roundabout at the A13 and widened the slip roads on junction 30 of the M25.

However, traders are still concerned the roads are not reliable enough to transport their freight. In decades to come when the superport is open to full capacity, up to 8,000 lorries are expected to travel in and out of the site every day.

Mr Mawer said: “I go on the M25 daily to get to work so I knowhow congested it is. Without rail, anything coming out of Thurrock is generally going to hit the M25.

“Where we are trying to achieve delivery on time we can’t afford to be disrupted by road congestion. That’s another reason why the port has invested in state-of-the-art rail facilities, so we can get more through rail.”

The Hillebrand Group has made the decision to distribute more than 50 per cent of its cargo by train instead of relying on the road network. It has bought its own trains which leave five times a week for Daventry and Bristol and it is also buying space on other rail services.

Simon Moore, chief executive of London Gateway, said: “Most traffic movements will be people getting here to work. There’s always going to be a lot of people coming to work because we are creating so many jobs. A lot of containers are going by train or no further than the logistics park.

“We have invested heavily on the M25 and A13 which is great for the local community as well.

“We are increasing the capacity of the infrastructure more than the amount of traffic on it.”