Gateway
Western Railway - (en)
The Gateway Western Railway (AAR reporting marks GWWR) was a Class II
railroad that operated 408 miles of former Chicago and Alton Railroad
track between Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri. It also operated
between Kansas City, Missouri, and Springfield, Illinois on the old Alton
Railroad line that eventually was the Chicago, Missouri and Western
Railway.
History
The Gateway Western Railway began operations on January 9, 1990 after
purchasing the Kansas City to St. Louis right-of-way from the bankrupt
Chicago, Missouri and Western Railway. Originally the Kansas City, St.
Louis & Chicago, the line came under Chicago & Alton control in
1878, but never had much success under several operators of its line over
the years, which included the Alton Railroad, Gulf, Mobile and Ohio
Railroad from 1947 to 1972, and Illinois Central Gulf Railroad from 1972
to 1987. On April 28, 1987, Illinois Central Gulf, divesting itself of
surplus lines to get itself down to a core system, sold the Kansas City
line, and the Chicago (actually with ownership ending at Joliet, Illinois,
then with trackage rights from there to Chicago via the Illinois Central
Railroad) to East St. Louis mainline, to a new 633 mile regional, Chicago,
Missouri and Western Railway.
In 1989, the Chicago, Missouri and Western Railway entered bankruptcy. The
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) had always wanted an access
to St. Louis. Seeing an opportunity, Santa Fe arranged for a New York
investment firm to purchase the Chicago, Missouri and Western Railway's
Kansas City to St. Louis line, thus creating the Gateway Western Railway.
Santa Fe routed quite a bit of intermodal traffic via this routing during
this period. However, by 1995, the Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) and
the Santa Fe merged to form Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. With
the BN already owning a St. Louis line via a couple of routes already,
less and less ATSF traffic was routed this way.
In 1997, the GWWR and its Illinois subsidiary Gateway Eastern Railway,
were purchased by Kansas City Southern (KCS). The KCS operated the GWWR as
a subsidiary until 2002 when it transferred its controlling interest to
its own parent company and officially merged the GWWR into the KCS. The
Gateway Eastern, however, remained a KCS subsidiary.
