Eleven companies – including J Murphy & Sons – earned more than £100m last year for work on the network.
Costain was paid £184m in the 2012/13 financial year, edging out Carillion Construction which came in as the third highest paid with £180m.
EDF Energy, which supplies the rail company with its electricity, ranked as top supplier in the payments league earning nearly £300m.
Under new measures to raise transparency Network Rail now makes public how much it spends with its major suppliers.
Balfour Beatty’s civil engineering and rail businesses are ranked separately in the expenditure league, but together would have come second with a combined take of £270m.
Murphy, which is increasingly doing more for Network Rail, actually ranked above Balfour Beatty Rail, pocketing £102m over the course of the year.
Network Rail's Top 20 suppliers
Suppliers' and contractors' payments in 2012/13
| Supplier name | Spend £m | service | % of total |
|---|---|---|---|
| EDF Energy | 296 | Electricity supply | 5.40% |
| Costain | 184 | Infrastructure | 3.40% |
| Carillion Construction | 180 | Infrastructure | 3.30% |
| Babcock Rail | 177 | Track Infrastructure | 3.20% |
| Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering | 170 | Infrastructure | 3.10% |
| Amey-Colas | 166 | Track Infrastructure | 3.00% |
| Invensys Rail | 159 | Signalling Infrastructure | 2.90% |
| Atkins | 120 | Signalling Infrastructure, consultancy | 2.20% |
| Tata Steel UK | 115 | Steel rail supply | 2.10% |
| J Murphy & Sons | 102 | Infrastructure | 1.90% |
| Balfour Beatty Rail | 100 | Track Infrastructure | 1.80% |
| DB Schenker Rail (UK) | 98 | Rail logistics | 1.80% |
| BAM Nuttall | 94 | Infrastructure | 1.70% |
| VolkerFitzpatrick | 88 | Infrastructure | 1.60% |
| Amey OWR | 86 | Structural inspection services | 1.60% |
| Signalling Solutions | 85 | Signalling Infrastructure | 1.50% |
| Amalgamated Construction | 78 | Infrastructure | 1.40% |
| British Transport Police | 75 | Station & line side Êsecurity | 1.40% |
| Geoffrey Osborne | 67 | Infrastructure | 1.20% |
| C Spencer | 65 | Infrastructure | 1.20% |
| Total | 2,505 | 45.70% |
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