Kansas City Terminal Railway

Kansas City Terminal Railway
Overview
Headquarters	Kansas City, Missouri
Reporting mark	KCT
Locale	Kansas, Missouri
Dates of operation	1906–present
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The Kansas City Terminal Railway (reporting mark KCT) 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]

Kansas City Union Station

The railway was created after a series of floods in 1903, 1904, and 1908 inundated the West Bottoms each time and temporarily closed the Union Depot there. The 12 original trunk railways of the city at the time joined together to build the new Kansas City Union Station and to coordinate the bridges and switches that serve the city.

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

The railway owns and dispatches 85 miles of track (25 in Kansas and 60 in Missouri) and leases six locomotives and no freight cars. It no longer owns Union Station. It has subcontracted its maintenance operations to BNSF.

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

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

It now serves the Class I railroads BNSF, Canadian Pacific Railway, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern Railway and Union Pacific as well as the Class III railroads Missouri & Northern Arkansas Railroad and Genesee & Wyoming, plus Amtrak.

References[]

^ Bryan, Joseph; Weisbrod, Glen Elliot; Martland, Carl Douglas (2007). NCHRP Report 586: Rail Freight Solutions to Roadway Congestion: Final Report and Guidebook. Transportation Research Board. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-309-09893-9. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
^ "Kaw River Railroad". WatcoCompanies.com. Watco. 2015. Archived from the original on July 9, 2015. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
^ "STB Finance Docket No. 34830". STB.DOT.gov. United States Department of Transportation. March 22, 2006.

[1] Bryan, Joseph; Weisbrod, Glen Elliot; Martland, Carl Douglas (2007). NCHRP Report 586: Rail Freight Solutions to Roadway Congestion: Final Report and Guidebook. Transportation Research Board. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-309-09893-9. Retrieved May 20, 2020.

[2] "Kaw River Railroad". WatcoCompanies.com. Watco. 2015. Archived from the original on July 9, 2015. Retrieved May 20, 2020.

[3] "STB Finance Docket No. 34830". STB.DOT.gov. United States Department of Transportation. March 22, 2006.

[1]

[2]

[3]