Kansas City Terminal Railway
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| Kansas City Terminal Railway | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Reporting marks | KCT |
| Locale | Kansas, Missouri |
| Dates of operation | 1909–present |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge) |
| Headquarters | Kansas City, Kansas |
The Kansas City Terminal Railway is a Class III railroad that serves as joint operation of the trunk railroads that serve the Kansas City metropolitan area, the country's second largest rail hub.
The Railway was created after a 1903 flood in the West Bottoms closed the Union Depot there. The 12 original trunk railways of the city at the time joined together to build the new 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 switching operations to the Kansas City Southern and its maintenance operations to BNSF.
The original trunk railroads that were owners of the Kansas City Terminal were:
- Alton Railroad
- Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
- Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
- Chicago Great Western Railway
- Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad
- Chicago, Rock Island and 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, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern Railway and Union Pacific as well as Class II carrier Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad and Class III Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad plus Amtrak.
