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Private company

Kansas City Terminal Railway

Logo: Kansas City Terminal Railway, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

Class III terminal railroad in Kansas City1

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. It is operated by the Kaw River Railroad. The railway owns and dispatches 95 miles of track in Kansas and Missouri.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

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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. It is operated by the Kaw River Railroad.2

How it started

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. 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.

Wabash Railroad

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

From Wikipedia’s article on Kansas City Terminal Railway, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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