Riding Amtrak isn’t about getting anywhere quickly or on-time.
It’s all about the journey, and Chicago is a great place to start a long or short train trip.
Chicago has a long history as the center of the American rail network, and even today, our Union Station is the gateway to both short day trips and multi-day cross-country adventures.
I’m a bit of a rail fan myself, and I’ve taken multi-day trips from Chicago to California and Florida, along with multiple shorter Amtrak trips across the country. (I’m currently on the inaugural run of the Floridian, the first train to connect Chicago and Florida since 1979.) It’s a fantastic way to see the country, and the routes from Chicago are some of the most scenic train trips you can take in the U.S.
If you’re ready to go on your own trip, here are some of the best you can take from Union Station.
California Zephyr to Emeryville
Travel time: 52 hours, 57 minutes. Explore the timetable here.
The California Zephyr is possibly the most breathtaking long-distance train route from Chicago, speeding through the Midwest and Great Plains before twisting through the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada to the San Francisco Bay.
Right before I started at the Sun-Times in January 2023, I took along a couple of books and disposable cameras and rode the whole route in coach.
Admittedly, it wasn’t the most comfortable trip. There are no showers in coach, and for over 60 hours, I subsisted on microwaved food from the Cafe Car.
The trip is slow — my train in 2023 was delayed nearly eight hours after boulders fell on the tracks — but worth it. From the Sightseer Lounge, the observation and cafe car with extra-tall windows, you’ll get impressive views of the cliffs and mountains of Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California.
A word of warning: the train doesn’t go across the San Francisco Bay. But, you can book an Amtrak Thruway bus that will take you into the city.
If that’s not enough train travel for you, you can keep the fun going by buying a ticket on the Coast Starlight, one of the most beautiful trains in the country that passes through the Bay Area on its way from Los Angeles to Seattle.
For another cross-country route, you can take the Southwest Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles through Kansas City, Albuquerque and Flagstaff.
The California Zephyr, seen here in 1962 before Amtrak was created, has long been one of America’s favorite train routes.
Borealis to St. Paul
Travel time: 7 hours, 24 minutes. Explore the timetable here.
The Borealis is one of Amtrak’s newest routes, running from Union Station to St. Paul, Minnesota’s historic Union Depot. From there, you can take the METRO Green Line light rail to downtown Minneapolis.
The route first heads north to Milwaukee before heading west to the tourist hotspot of Wisconsin Dells. But it also makes stops at a number of beautiful small cities along the Mississippi River in Wisconsin and Minnesota including La Crosse, Winona and Red Wing.
If you’re just looking for a day trip, you can take the Hiawatha Service to Milwaukee, which runs seven trains between Chicago and Milwaukee daily.
Amtrak’s cross-country Empire Builder also follows the same route as the Borealis, going from St. Paul west all the way to Spokane, Washington before continuing to either Seattle or Portland, Oregon.
The Empire Builder has stops right on the edge of Glacier National Park, making it an excellent choice for hikers headed west.
Amtrak’s state-supported Lincoln Service uses some of the newest trains in Amtrak’s fleet.
Lincoln Service to St. Louis
Travel time: 5 hours, 21 minutes. Explore the timetable here.
If spending multiple days on a slow-moving train doesn’t sound like your idea of fun, Illinois’ state-funded Lincoln Service might be more your speed.
Last year, Amtrak got federal approval to bump up the top speed on the route to 110 mph from 90 mph. Now it’s almost as fast as driving — but a lot more laid back. You’ll also to get to ride on some of Amtrak’s newest cars.
Besides St. Louis and its many attractions like Forest Park and City Museum, there are also multiple smaller Illinois towns along the way worth exploring like Pontiac, Bloomington and Springfield.
You can keep going, too. From St. Louis, the Lincoln Service becomes the Missouri River Runner and follows the river across the state to Kansas City. There, you can connect to the Southwest Chief for a different route back to Chicago or to head west towards Los Angeles.
Or, you can take the Texas Eagle, which starts from Chicago and follows the same route as the Lincoln Service to St. Louis before turning south. The train goes through Dallas and San Antonio, and some trains continue all the way to Los Angeles — making up a nearly 66-hour trip from Chicago.
An Amtrak train bound for Chicago pulls in to the Dyer, Ind. station, Thursday October 18, 2012.
Cardinal to New York City
Travel time: 27 hours, 28 minutes. Explore the timetable here.
The Cardinal is not the fastest way to get from Chicago to New York City, but it is one of the most scenic.
The route heads southeast from Chicago, through Indiana and Cincinnatti before following the Ohio River into West Virginia. From there, it snakes through the Appalachian Mountains to Charlottesville, Virginia before turning northeast toward Washington, D.C. The train continues through Amtrak’s busy Northeast Corridor to New York City.
The Cardinal only runs three days a week, but there are multiple options if you want to get to New York by train. The Lake Shore Limited runs straight from Chicago to New York, skirting the southern shore of Lake Eerie, before continuing on to Boston.
Another option is to take the Floridian — a temporary combination of Amtrak’s Capitol Limited and Silver Star lines — to Washington D.C.’s Union Station. Once you’re in the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak has many more train options, including the high-speed Acela that reaches speeds up to 150 mph between D.C. and Boston.
Passengers wait in the Great Hall at Union Station in the West Loop, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024.
City of New Orleans to New Orleans
Travel time: 19 hours, 42 minutes. Explore the timetable here.
I couldn’t make a list of train trips from Chicago without mentioning the City of New Orleans.
The train, made famous by Chicagoan Steve Goodman’s oft-covered song, heads south and snakes along the Mississippi, through Memphis and down to the Gulf of Mexico. It’s a popular route — at under 20 hours, it’s not quite as intimidating as some of the western routes but is scenic in its own way.
You could also opt to keep your trip shorter and get off the City of New Orleans in Carbondale, a great entry point to the rolling hills of southern Illinois. There are also two state-supported routes that run the same direction daily, the Saluki and Illini Service.
There are lots of other shorter trips from Union Station that don’t involve spending multiple days on the train.
Besides the Lincoln Service and Saluki, Amtrak also runs daily Carl Sandburg and Illinois Zephyr trains from Union Station to Quincy. If you’re a real rail fan, Galesburg is worth a stop, especially during Railroad Days during the summer. The town was built around the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad — which later became part of BNSF.
There are also Amtrak’s Michigan services: the Pere Marquette to Grand Rapids, the Blue Water to Kalamazoo on its way to Port Huron and the Wolverine, which goes through Detroit on its way to Pontiac.
The Amtrak station in Benton Harbor is just steps away from the shore of Lake Michigan and takes less than three hours. Ann Arbor is another lovely weekend trip, and the Wolverine to Detroit takes a little over six hours — which isn’t much longer than driving during rush hour.
