It's not just that York-based Corus Rail Consultancy has almost doubled its staff - from 195 to 350 - since it moved into the private sector from British Rail that makes it a strong contender for the Growth Business of the Year category.

It is the high-tech way in which it has achieved its massive multi-million contracts to help Railtrack plan its railway network revamp - including inventing massive advances in safety at a time when successive train disasters have had the industry reeling.

Corus' revolutionary 3D simulator which helps train drivers learn to negotiate complicated routes before ever setting foot in the front carriage is but one good reason for its entry in the new technology category of our awards.

The two entries come at a time when Corus Rail Consultancy, steered by Hugh Fenwick, has never been riding higher, with much of its expansion - 50 per cent - coming in the last 18 months.

By next May it should have a brand new £1.5 million four-storey block on the site of the derelict former Crampton's auction rooms in Toft Green - close to the five storeys it will continue to use in nearby Hudson House and offering space to expand to 500 staff over the next five years.

Meanwhile, the firm is continuing to win the big orders. It recently designed Railtrack's new track layout at Leeds City Station, using its high-tech simulation for the layout to train 1,300 train drivers in advance of the project becoming operational.

Corus was also principal designer for five kilometres of new railway for the Tyne & Wear Metro system at Sunderland; engineering a new 70-metre span bridge which carries the East Coast Main Line over the River Trent at Newark; and a design for extra track between Dublin and Kildare commissioned by Iarnrod Eirann (Irish Railways).