ABP Port of Southampton has been shortlisted in the Port of the Year category at the prestigious National Transport Awards 2015.

Supported by the Department of Transport and Passenger Focus, the ceremony will take place on October 8 at Westminster Park Plaza, London, to honour the country’s leading transport service providers.

ABP Southampton is up against last year’s winner, Port of Tyne, as well as ABP’s Alexandra Dock development at the Port of Hull, Peel Ports Group’s Port of Liverpool and Manchester Ship Canal and Port of Dover.

There are 19 other award categories including Rail Station of the Year, Freight Operator of the Year, Ferry Operator of the Year and Integrated Transport Authority of the Year.

The glitzy ceremony will be hosted by impressionist Rory Bremner and feature a speech by keynote speaker Patrick McLoughlin MP, the Secretary of State for Transport.

Nick Ridehalgh, ABP director Southampton, said: “This great news is testament to the hard work of the staff across the entire port, from those delivering our ambitious business plans to those who contribute to the incredibly smooth operations that take place 24 hours a day.

“We look forward to the ceremony in October.”

The 15th Annual National Transport Awards celebrates the successes that have been achieved on both national and local transport projects.

The shortlisted projects have shown the judges the tangible results they’ve achieved, improving the experience for their transport users and ultimately adding to the successful development of the nation’s transport infrastructure.

ABP Southampton contributes £1 billion to the UK economy every year, supports 15,000 jobs nationally and is the UK’s number one cruise port – welcoming 1.7 million passengers in 2013.

Southampton is also the UK’s number one car-handling port, handling 745,000 cars in 2013 and home to the UK’s second largest and most efficient container terminal, capable of handling the largest vessels in the world. It handles, on average, 26 million tonnes of commodities each year.