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. It no
longer owns Union Station and has subcontracted its switching operations to the Kansas City Southern and its
maintenance operations to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
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
KCTR 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.
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Below Left: 1922 Kansas City Terminal Railway Company Emergency Clearance Card
Right: 1961 Kansas City Terminal Ticket Book
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