The California Zephyr

The California Zephyr is an Amtrak long-distance passenger train running daily between Chicago and Emeryville, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its route passes through Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Reno. Covering 2,438 miles (3,924 km), it is Amtrak’s longest daily route and its second-longest overall, behind only the Texas Eagle’s triweekly extension from San Antonio to Los Angeles. The trip takes about 52 and a half hours. Amtrak promotes the line as one of its most scenic, highlighting views of the upper Colorado River valley in the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. The current train is the second version to carry the name California Zephyr; the first was a private operation that followed a different path through Nevada and California.

In fiscal year 2023, the California Zephyr carried 328,458 passengers, a 13.1% increase from FY2022, but still below the pre-COVID-19 pandemic figure of 410,844 in FY2019. The train generated $51,950,998 in revenue in FY2016, the most recent year for which route-specific revenue data is available.

**History**

**Previous service**

Before Amtrak was created in 1971, three competing trains ran between Chicago and the East Bay, with bus connections to San Francisco. The original California Zephyr was operated by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, and the Western Pacific Railroad. It ran from Chicago to Oakland via Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Oroville, following what is now called the Central Corridor and Feather River Route. Launched with great fanfare on March 20, 1949, it was discontinued in March 1970—the only one of the three trains not still running when Amtrak took over. The City of San Francisco was operated by the Milwaukee Road, Union Pacific Railroad, and Southern Pacific Railroad, traveling from Chicago to Oakland on the Overland Route via Omaha, Cheyenne, Ogden, and Reno. The San Francisco Chief was run by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway on the more southerly Southern Transcon, connecting Chicago to Richmond, California, via Kansas City, Amarillo, and Bakersfield.

Railpax (renamed Amtrak in late April 1971) originally planned to revive the California Zephyr as part of its initial network, using the Burlington Northern east of Denver, the Denver and Rio Grande Western between Denver and Ogden, Utah, and the Western Pacific west of Ogden. This route would have served more populated areas like Denver and Salt Lake City, passed through rural communities with poor highway access, and attracted passengers with its scenery. However, because the Western Pacific had already ended its money-losing passenger service by terminating the California Zephyr, it was ineligible to join Amtrak. On April 12, 1971, the Western Pacific refused to cooperate with Railpax, so the Southern Pacific route between Ogden and Oakland was chosen instead. On April 26, the Denver and Rio Grande Western also opted out of Amtrak. Its contract allowed Amtrak to later increase service, and the railroad feared that would crowd its single-track mainline, which competed with the Union Pacific’s double-track route. The Rio Grande instead continued operating the Denver–Ogden Rio Grande Zephyr. Amtrak had to quickly piece together a Denver–Cheyenne–Ogden routing on the Union Pacific.

**Amtrak**

Between spring 1971 and summer 1972, passengers traveling between Chicago and Oakland had to use two separate trains: the daily Denver Zephyr between Chicago and Denver, and the City of San Francisco, which ran three times a week between Denver and the Bay Area. After several false starts, Amtrak merged these into one train called the San Francisco Zephyr, a name that honored both the California Zephyr and the San Francisco Chief, running between Chicago and Oakland. The Rio Grande continued its Rio Grande Zephyr between Denver and Ogden. The San Francisco Zephyr and Rio Grande Zephyr were scheduled to allow a connection in Ogden, but not in Denver.

In July 1980, the San Francisco Zephyr received new bi-level Superliner I cars built by Pullman-Standard—one of the last of Amtrak’s western long-distance trains to get them—and began exchanging through cars at Ogden with the Seattle–Chicago Pioneer and the Los Angeles–Chicago Desert Wind. Between Ogden and Chicago, the Zephyr, Desert Wind, and Pioneer ran as a combined train.

In 1983, citing growing losses in passenger operations, the Rio Grande chose to join Amtrak. It made its final Rio Grande Zephyr run on April 24 and handed over most of its rolling stock, though Amtrak was already replacing its Heritage Fleet with new Superliners, so the ex-Rio Grande cars never entered service on the new California Zephyr. Amtrak rerouted the San Francisco Zephyr over the Rio Grande’s Moffat Subdivision between Denver and Salt Lake City, as it had originally wanted in 1971. The change was set for April 25, but a mudslide at Thistle, Utah, closed the line and delayed the switch until July 16. With the new route, Amtrak renamed the train the California Zephyr. Today’s California Zephyr follows mostly the same path as the original east of Winnemucca, Nevada. West of Wells, Nevada, it uses the route of the former City of San Francisco along the Overland Route (the first transcontinental railroad). Across central Nevada, the two rail lines have been combined for directional running, so the exact point where the train switches lines depends on its direction. For most of the 1980s and 1990s, the California Zephyr operated in tandem with the Seattle–Chicago Pioneer.