High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Kansas Pacific Railway (KP) was a historic railroad company that operated in the western United States in the late 19th century. It was a federally chartered railroad, backed with government land grants. It operated many of the first long-distance lines in the state of Kansas in the 1870s, extending the national railway network westward across that state and into Colorado. Its main line furnished a principal transportation route that opened up settlement of the central Great Plains, and its link from Kansas City to Denver actually provided the last link in the coast-to-coast railway network in 1870. The railroad was consolidated with the Union Pacific in 1880, but its mainline continues to be an integral part of the Union Pacific network today.