The payment was received in March, concluding more than two years of legal wrangling over liability after the bridge at the Dunedin Railway Station was struck by a passing freight train on February 12, 2008.
Figures released by the council late last week, following a request under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, showed the council received a settlement sum of $249,000 from the parties involved.
The sum was less than the $272,255 cost of replacing the bridge previously given by the council, but the higher figure included the cost of improvements to the original structure's design.
The parties' payment was a negotiated settlement covering most of the cost of simply repairing the original bridge, council chief executive Jim Harland said.
"The DCC has not borne any of the cost of repairs," he said.
Questions remain over who, if anybody, had accepted liability for the cause of the accident.
No complete public account of what caused the train's container flap to pop up - whether through mechanical failure or resulting from human error - has ever been confirmed.
KiwiRail, at the time owned by Toll, owned the train and employed its crew, while South Freight, a division of Port Otago, loaded the container.
The ownership of the container was not clear, although there were claims it was Chinese-owned and leased for use in New Zealand.
KiwiRail refused to release its copy of the settlement agreement earlier this month, following a request under the Official Information Act 1982, citing a confidentiality agreement.
Mr Harland also refused to release his copy late last week, saying to do so would "prejudice the commercial position of several of the parties" and the council's ability to negotiate similar settlements in future.
"I believe the public interest is served by the release of just the settlement sum," he said.
Contacted yesterday, Mr Harland said liability was not discussed in the settlement agreement, but details of complicated arrangements between the parties were.
"If the details were broken down that would cause some problems.
"They would not be comfortable at all with it being released."
Last month, Port Otago chief executive Geoff Plunket refused to discuss liability, saying: "That won't change things."
