Kansas City Terminal Railway

The Kansas City Terminal Railway is a Class III terminal railroad that serves as a joint operation of the trunk railroads that serve the Kansas City metropolitan area, the United States' second largest rail hub after Chicago.[1] It is operated by the Kaw River Railroad.[2][3]

The railway owns and dispatches 95 miles of track in Kansas and Missouri.[4] It no longer owns Kansas City Union Station. It leases six locomotives and no freight cars. Maintenance operations are subcontracted to BNSF Railway.

KCT now serves the Class I railroads BNSF, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific.[4] It also serves Amtrak, as well as the Class II railroad Missouri & Northern Arkansas Railroad and the class III railroad Kaw River Railroad (a WATCO subsidiary).

History

The railway was created after a series of floods—including a large one in 1903—inundated the West Bottoms each time and temporarily closed the Union Depot there.[4] The 12 original trunk railways of the city at the time joined to build the new Union Station and to coordinate the bridges and switches that serve the city.[4]

The original trunk railroads that were owners of the Kansas City Terminal were:[4]

Under an Interstate Commerce Commission order, the railway operated and then oversaw the liquidation of the Rock Island Line from 1979 to 1980.

• Alton Railroad
• Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway
• Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad
• Chicago Great Western Railway
• Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad
• Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad
• Kansas City Southern Railway
• Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad
• Missouri Pacific Railroad
• St. Louis-San Francisco Railway
• Union Pacific Railroad
• Wabash Railroad

See also

External links