Network Rail’s top 20 suppliers reveal that Carillion has bagged more spend deposing Costain, which came top of the contractor rankings last year.

But Balfour Beatty can still lay claim to being the most important group supplier with its three main rail business all ranking individually in the league table.

Taken together Balfour Beatty Rail, Infrastructure Services and Civil Engineering carried out work worth £358m, more even than EDF, which has long been the rail infrastructure company’s biggest supplier.

This year most firms saw spending increase as Network Rail ramped up spending and consolidated work with fewer suppliers.

The top 20 shared out £3.2bn between them compared to £2.4bn the year before and accounted for 47% of total supplier spend.

BAM Nuttall achieved fastest growth with its haul of work doubling this year.

J Murphy and Amalgamated Construction have made the top 10 suppliers, followed closely by C Spencer ranked at 13. These three specialists alone saw spending between them rise from £245m to £426m.