According to latest results for 2012/13, infrastructure spending soared by £450m to exceed the £5bn mark for the first time.

Pre-tax profits soared 63% to £775m but the number of trains running on time fell to 90.9% from 91.5%, due mainly to the severe winter weather.

Group finance director, Patrick Butcher, said: “Over the last 12 months we have invested an unprecedented amount in growing and expanding the rail network through over 2,000 projects nationwide.

He added it had been a challenging year on train performance, influenced by bad weather, and as a result Network Rail faced a tough final year of the control period to meet stretching efficiency targets.

Of its major investment projects, the £895m Reading station redevelopment is now on target to be completed a year ahead of schedule in 2015.

Significant track and signalling upgrades during Easter, and the opening of the massive new footbridge and new platforms, mark the first phase in unblocking the Reading bottleneck