Topeka, KS (TOP)

Ticket Revenue

FY 2012

$958,184

Station Ridership

FY 2012

10,459

Note: Fiscal year is from
October through September.

The railroad has been integral to the history of Topeka, as this city was the origin of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad that followed the famous Santa Fe Trail across the American west.

The city has long been a convergence point for transportation. A ferry established in this area in 1842 to cross the Kansas River on the Oregon Trail. In the 1850s, trade increased along a military road from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Riley through this area.

Topeka was founded by a group of Free State settlers in 1854 from Lawrence and New England, and chartered as a city in 1857. The city was prominent in the political conflict between pro-slavery groups and the anti-slavery Free Soil Party. Among the city’s founders was Cyrus K. Holliday, who would become mayor of Topeka and founder of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. In 1859, Holliday went on to establish the headquarters in the city for the construction of the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. By the 1860s, Topeka became a commercial and transportation hub because of the prolific trade upon the river as well as the railroad.

When Kansas was admitted to the Union in 1861, Topeka had already become the state capitol. It is also the seat of Shawnee County. The name “Topeka” comes from a Kansas tribal name meaning, “a good place to grow (prairie) potatoes.” Today, Topeka is an important shipping point for cattle and wheat, and is a marketing and processing center for farm products, as well as being a manufacturing center and headquarters for many well-known retail brands. The Menninger family established their world-famous clinic there, which operated in the city from 1919 to 2003; thus, Topeka has been an important location for psychiatric research and therapy.

In 1869, after the close of the Civil War, the ATSF started moving west from Topeka. General offices and machine shops were established in Topeka in 1878, and an ATSF passenger depot was operating there by 1880.

The Topeka Harvey House, the second such, opened in 1878 as part of the Santa Fe depot and remained open until 1940.

The current brick station was built in 1950. The BNSF (successor to ATSF) remodeled the train station, which reopened in June 2006 amid general fanfare.

The station is staffed, with a waiting room that is opened for boarding and detraining five days a week. There is help with luggage.

Topeka, Kansas, is served by two trains daily.