Southwest Chief - Definition and Overview

The Southwest Chief (or Southwest Limited) is a train route operated by Amtrak in the Midwestern and Southwestern United States. It runs from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California, passing through Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

The Southwest Chief is the successor to the Super Chief, a train run by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF) until 1971 and later by Amtrak until the AT&SF forced Amtrak to stop using the name due to a decline in quality after Amtrak took over the AT&SF's passenger trains.

The Southwest Chief is opperated using Amtrak's Superliner (railcar) equipment. The train typically consists of three sleeper cars, three coach cars, a dining car and a Sightseer lounge car. The train also carries baggage in baggage cars and express freight in other cars.

Cities served

• Chicago, Illinois
• Naperville, Illinois
• Mendota, Illinois
• Princeton, Illinois
• Galesburg, Illinois
• Fort Madison, Iowa
• La Plata, Missouri
• Kansas City, Missouri
• Lawrence, Kansas
• Topeka, Kansas
• Newton, Kansas
• Hutchinson, Kansas
• Dodge City, Kansas
• Garden City, Kansas
• Lamar, Colorado
• La Junta, Colorado
• Trinidad, Colorado
• Raton, New Mexico
• Las Vegas, New Mexico
• Lamy, New Mexico
• Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Gallup, New Mexico
• Winslow, Arizona
• Flagstaff, Arizona
• Williams Junction, Arizona
• Kingman, Arizona
• Needles, California
• Barstow, California
• Victorville, California
• San Bernardino, California
• Riverside, California
• Pasadena, California (until 1994)
• Fullerton, California (after 1994)
• Los Angeles, California

External links

• Amtrak's Southwest Chief page (http://www.amtrak.com/trains/southwestchief.html)