Southwest Chief

TheSouthwest Chief(formerly theSouthwest LimitedandSuper Chief) is along-distancepassenger trainoperated byAmtrakon a 2,265-mile (3,645 km) route betweenChicagoandLos Angelesthrough theMidwestandSouthwestviaKansas City,Albuquerque,andFlagstaffmostly on the BNSF'sSouthern Transcon,but branches off between Albuquerque and Kansas City via the Topeka,La Junta,Raton,andGlorieta Subdivision.Amtrak bills the route as one of its most scenic, with views of thePainted Desertand the Red Cliffs ofSedona,as well as the plains of Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado.

Southwest Chief

Southwest Chiefin February 2020.
Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail,higher-speed rail
Locale	MidwesternandSouthwestern United States
Predecessor	Super Chief,El Capitan
First service	May 19, 1974(1974-05-19)(asSouthwest Limited) October 28, 1984(1984-10-28)(asSouthwest Chief)
Current operator(s)	Amtrak
Annual ridership	253,838 (FY23)13.5%
Route
Termini	Chicago,Illinois Los Angeles,California
Stops	31
Distance travelled	2,265 miles (3,645 km)
Average journey time	43 hours
Service frequency	Daily
Train number(s)	3 (westbound) 4 (eastbound)
On-board services
Class(es)	Coach Class Sleeper Service
Disabled access	Train lower level, all stations
Sleeping arrangements	Roomette (2 beds) Bedroom (2 beds) Bedroom Suite (4 beds) Accessible Bedroom (2 beds) Family Bedroom (4 beds)
Catering facilities	Dining car,Café
Observation facilities	Sightseer lounge car
Baggage facilities	Overhead racks, checked baggage available at selected stations
Technical
Rolling stock	GE Genesis Superliner
Track gauge	4 ft8+1⁄2in(1,435 mm)standard gauge
Operating speed	55 mph (89 km/h) (avg.) 90 mph (145 km/h) (top)
Track owner(s)	BNSF NMDOT(betweenIsleta PuebloandLamy)
Route map 0mi Chicago pre-1996 route Naperville 28 mi 45 km Joliet (Union Station) Mendota 83 mi 134 km Streator Princeton 104 mi 167 km Chillicothe Galesburg 162 mi 261 km Galesburg (SF Depot) IL IA Mississippi River 220 mi 354 km Fort Madison IA MO Des Moines River 298 mi 480 km La Plata 332 mi 534 km Marceline closed 1997 386 mi 621 km Carrollton proposed Missouri River Runner toSt. Louis 437 mi 703 km Kansas City MO KS 477 mi 768 km Lawrence 503 mi 810 km Topeka 549 mi 884 km Emporia closed 1997, proposed 638 mi 1027 km Newton Heartland Flyer toFort Worth(proposed) 671 mi 1080 km Hutchinson 782 mi 1259 km Dodge City 832 mi 1339 km Garden City Central Time Mountain Time KS CO 932 mi 1500 km Lamar 985 mi 1585 km La Junta proposed thru-cars Pueblo 1049 mi 1688 km Colorado Springs 1093 mi 1759 km 1066 mi 1716 km Trinidad CO NM 1089 mi 1753 km Raton 1200 mi 1931 km Las Vegas 1265 mi 2036 km Lamy 1332 mi 2144 km Albuquerque NMRX 1505 mi 2422 km Gallup NM AZ Mountain Time Arizona Time 1633 mi 2628 km Winslow 1691 mi 2721 km Flagstaff 1721 mi 2770 km Williams Junction closed 2018 Seligman closed 1984 1864 mi 3000 km Kingman AZ CA Arizona Time Pacific Time Colorado River 1931 mi 3108 km Needles 2100 mi 3380 km Barstow 2137 mi 3439 km Victorville 2184 mi 3515 km San Bernardino pre-1994 route Pomona 2194 mi 3531 km Riverside Pacific Surfliner toSan Diego Pasadena 2230 mi 3589 km Fullerton 2256 mi 3631 km Los Angeles All stations are accessible

Duringfiscal year2023, theSouthwest Chiefcarried 253,838 passengers, a 13.5% increase from FY2022.However, this is a 25% decrease from its pre-COVID-19 pandemic ridership of 338,180 passengers in FY2019.The route grossedUS$43,184,176in revenue during FY 2016, a 3.8% decrease from FY 2017.

History

Super ChiefarrivingLos Angeleson the last day Santa Fe operated passenger services, April 30, 1971.

Southwest Limiteddome car, 1974. Photo byCharles O'Rear.

TheSouthwest Chiefis the successor to theSuper Chief,which was inaugurated in 1936 as the flagship train of theAtchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.For most of its existence, it was "all-Pullman",carrying sleeping cars only. The Santa Fe merged theSuper Chiefwith its all-coach counterpart, theEl Capitan,in 1958. The merged train was known as theSuper Chief/El Capitan,but retained the train numbers used by theSuper Chief,17 westbound and 18 eastbound.

Amtrak retained theSuper Chief/El Capitanafter taking over passenger rail service on May 1, 1971. Initially retained theSuper Chief/El Capitannames with Santa Fe's permission.From June 11 to September 10, 1972, Amtrak operated theChief,a second Chicago–Los Angeles train along the same route, reviving the name of another notable Chicago–Los Angeles sleeper train operated by the Santa Fe. This was the only occasion on which Amtrak ran a second train to duplicate a long-distance service along its entire route outside the New York–Florida corridor.Amtrak dropped theEl Capitandesignation on April 19, 1973,truncating only the name toSuper Chief,and on March 7, 1974, the Santa Fe directed Amtrak to stop using theSuper ChiefandTexas Chief(another notable service originally operated by Santa Fe and which between Chicago andEmporia, Kansasshared route with theSuper Chief/El Capitan.Amtrak also took over that service in 1971) names due to a perceived reduction in the quality of services, after the Amtrak takeover. In October 1980 the Limited began running with the new coachesSuperlinerI built byPullman-Standard,being the fourth of Amtrak's western long-distance trains to be equipped with the new coaches (already running with such cars were theSan Francisco Zephyr,Desert WindandEmpire Builder). On November 30, 1981, Amtrak replaced the ex-Super Chief"Pleasure Dome" and "Hi-Level"cars on theSouthwest Limitedwith new superliners, completing the replacement of the original oldSuper Chiefcars with the new cars.The old Hi-Level coaches used on theEl Capitaninspired the design for the Superliners.Santa Fe managers, impressed by the design of the new Superliners, permitted Amtrak to restore the nameChiefto the train, and Amtrak renamed it theSouthwest Chiefon October 28, 1984.In September 1993, theChiefwas the first of Amtrak's western long-distance trains to receive the new Superliner II sleeping coaches built byBombardier Transportation.

TheSouthwest Limitedwith a mix of Superliners and Hi-Level cars in March 1981

In 1979, theSouthwest Chiefroute between Kansas City and Emporia was shifted in order to maintain service to Topeka and Lawrence, which would otherwise have lost service when theTexas Chiefwas discontinued. Until the 1979 realignment via Topeka, service operated via the direct route between Kansas City and Emporia, viaOlathe,GardnerandOttawa.

1990s

The western portion of thePasadena Subdivisionwas converted to theGold Linein the 1990s, requiring theSouthwest Chiefto be rerouted to theSan Bernardino Subdivisionbetween Los Angeles and San Bernardino. Eastbound service was rerouted on November 28, 1993, replacing the stops atPasadenaandPomonawithFullerton.Westbound service was rerouted on January 15, 1994.An additional stop atRiversidewas added on April 29, 2002.

The old Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF) station in Galesburg. Following the merger of Burlington Northern and Santa Fe in 1995, BNSF built a new connector tracks near Cameron, southwest of Galesburg, which caused theChiefto be rerouted to the former Burlington tracks and begin stopping at the Station located on the Burlington line, instead of the Santa Fe Station. As theChiefceased operation via Joliet, Streator and Chillicothe, the former Santa Fe Station in Galesburg was closed and then demolished.

Prior to 1996, theSouthwest Chiefoperated in Illinois betweenChicagoandGalesburgvia the ATSF's Chillicothe Subdivision, stopping atJoliet,Streator,andChillicothe.Following the merger of the Burlington Northern and the Santa Fe in 1996, BNSF constructed aconnector trackatCameron, Illinois,which allowed freight and passenger trains to transfer between the BN Mendota Subdivision and the Chillicothe Subdivision.TheChiefwas rerouted on the old Burlington Northern (formerChicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad - CB&Q) throughNaperville,Princeton,andMendotato Galesburg, a route shared with theCalifornia Zephyr,Illinois Zephyr and Carl Sandburg.Southwest Chiefservice to Joliet, Streator and Chillicothe was dropped as part of the realignment, although Joliet continues to see Amtrak service from other trains. TheChiefrealignment through the Cameron Connector to the Mendota Sub tracks caused Amtrak to concentrate all of its Galesburg operations in thepresent station,and thestationbuilding along the former Santa Fe line was closed and later demolished.

In January 1994, theSouthwest Chiefwas rerouted between San Bernardino and Los Angeles onto theSanta Fe Third Districtvia Fullerton and Riverside. Previously, it served Pasadena and Pomona via the Santa FePasadena Subdivision,which was closed to all through traffic following damage to a bridge over the eastbound lanes ofInterstate 210in Arcadia during theNorthridge Earthquake.

Between 1997 and 1998, Amtrak operated theSouthwest Chiefin conjunction with the Washington–ChicagoCapitol Limited.The two trains used the sameSuperlinerequipment sets and passengers traveling on both trains could remain aboard during the layover in Chicago. Originally announced in 1996, Amtrak planned to call this through serviceNational Chiefand assign it its own numbers (15/16), but the name and numbers were never used. Amtrak dropped the practice with its May 1998 timetable.

2010s

Southwest Chief#4 arriving at Trinidad, CO

TheSouthwest Chiefwas one of five routes studied for possible performance improvements by Amtrak in FY 2012.

The part of theSouthwest Chief'sroute in western Kansas, southeastern Colorado, and northeastern New Mexico faced uncertainty throughout the 2010s.

In 2010, BNSF said that Amtrak would have to pay for all track maintenance on the portion of theSouthwest Chief'route between La Junta and Lamy (Raton and Glorieta Subdivisions), because BNSF does not run any freight trains over this segment.BNSF also said that they would be lowering thetrack classon the portion of theSouthwest Chief'sroute between Hutchinson and La Junta from Class IV to Class III and decreasing the passenger train speed limit from 79 mph (127 km/h) to 60 mph (97 km/h).

In return, BNSF proposed rerouting theSouthwest Chieffrom the affected sections of track to itsSouthern Transconvia Wichita, Amarillo, and Clovis—the same route once used by theSan Francisco Chief.To avoid a reroute, Amtrak sought help from the affected states—Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico.The states eventually contributed money toward rebuilding and rehabilitating the tracks—much of it obtained from federal transportation grants—and the route was not changed.

However, this same part of theSouthwest Chief'sroute was threatened again in 2018 when it became the focal point of a struggle to determine whether to continue Amtrak as a national network or to operate regional stand-alone networks.The issue arose when Amtrak introduced new requirements for the third renewal grant and raised previously undiscussed technical issues.A letter dated May 31, 2018, co-signed by 11 Senators, condemned the action and urged providing the match.In an open letter, former Amtrak President and CEOJoseph H. Boardmansaid, "TheSouthwest Chiefissue is the battleground whose outcome will determine the fate of American’s national interconnected rail passenger network ".

In June 2018, Amtrak announced that it was considering the replacement of rail service along the Kansas portion of theSouthwest ChiefwithAmtrak Thruwaybuses between Albuquerque and Dodge City, where train service east to Chicago would resume.Senators in the affected area succeeded in offering an amendment to a funding bill. Per a press release from the office of co-sponsor SenatorJerry Moran,"This amendment would provide resources for maintenance and safety improvements along the Southwest Chief route and would compel Amtrak to fulfill its promise of matching funding for the successful TIGER IX discretionary grant... In addition, this amendment would effectively reverse Amtrak’s decision to substitute rail service with bus service over large segments of the route through FY2019".

2020s

In February 2020, USDOT granted $225,000 toward studying aSouthwest Chiefspur train service that would run toColorado Springs, Colorado,via Pueblo.This follows prior plans to add service to Pueblo and connect with the proposedFront Range Passenger Railservice between Denver and Pueblo. It would have also run along former Colorado & Southern tracks through Walsenburg, reconnecting with its current alignment at Trinidad.

In May 2022, the Missouri General Assembly approved $1 million of state funds to establish aSouthwest Chiefinfill stationinCarrollton,between theKansas CityandLa Platastations. If approved by the governor, the state funds would have to bematchedby local agencies.

Incidents

On October 2, 1979, theSouthwest Limitedderailed atLawrence, Kansas.Of the 30 crew and 147 passengers on board, two were killed and 69 were injured. The cause was excessive speed on a curve. Underlying causes included the engineer's unfamiliarity with the route and speed restriction signage having been removed during track repairs.

On August 9, 1997, the eastboundSouthwest Chiefderailed about 5 miles northeast ofKingman, Arizona,when a bridge whose undergirding had been washed out by a flash flood collapsed under the weight of the train, which was traveling close to 90 mph (145 km/h). While the lead locomotive stayed on the track, the three trailing locomotives, nine passenger cars, and seven baggage and mail cars derailed. All stayed upright. Of the 325 passengers and crew aboard, 154 were injured and none were killed.

On October 16, 1999, the westboundSouthwest Chiefsuffered a minor derailment nearLudlow, California,following theHector Mine earthquake.All the cars stayed upright and four passengers were injured.

On March 14, 2016, theSouthwest Chiefderailed3 miles (4.8 km) fromCimarron, Kansas.Of 14 crew and 128 passengers, 20 were injured. Investigators determined the train derailed after the tracks were knocked out of alignment by a runaway truck from a nearby farm operation that had rolled down a hill and struck the tracks after its owners failed to secure the parking brake.

On June 27, 2022, the eastboundSouthwest Chiefderailedafter striking a dump truck at a level crossing nearMendon, Missouri.Of 12 crew and 275 passengers, 3 deaths and 150 injuries have been reported; the driver of the truck also died.

Operations

Boy Scouts unload their equipment at Raton in 2011.

TheSouthwest Chiefruns up to 90 mph (145 km/h) along a significant portion of its route, made possible byautomatic train stopsystems originally installed by the Santa Fe Railway. Of Amtrak's long-distance routes, only theTexas Eagleruns faster (with a maximum speed of 100 mph (161 km/h) through much of Illinois).

During the spring and summer, volunteer rangers with the Trails and Rails program from theNational Park Servicetravel on board and provide a narrative betweenLa Junta, Colorado,and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Beginning in May 2013, Trails and Rails volunteers also boarded to provide narration between Chicago andLa Plata, Missouri.

From June through August, theSouthwest Chiefis used byScoutstraveling to and fromPhilmont Scout Ranchvia theRaton station.During those months, Raton station is staffed by Amtrak employees and handles checked baggage.

Equipment

TheSouthwest ChiefrunsSuperlinertrain sets. Trains typically consist of twoP40 or P42 locomotives,a baggage car, three or four sleeper cars, a dining car, sightseer lounge and three coach cars.If demand warrants, a fourth coach is added between Chicago and Kansas City.Private carsordeadhead carsalso sometimes ride along.

As is already happening on all its long-distance routes, Amtrak will replace the P42DCs with modernSiemens ALC-42locomotives by 2027, and the Superliner cars withnew long-distance carsby 2032.

Route

Amtrak Southwest Chief

The portion of the route between La Junta and Albuquerque (Raton and Glorieta Subs) is known for having some of the last activesemaphoreson a Class I railroad mainline, dating back to the ATSF era. Little and/or no freight traffic on those portions of the Chief's route is what caused the semaphores to last until the present day, although over time many were removed by both BNSF andNMDOT.

In August 2024, the last semaphores located on the NMDOT (former 4th Santa Fe District / Glorieta Sub) section of the line, between WSS Lamy and Waldo Siding nearCerrilloswere replaced, leaving only 11 blades currently in operation betweenWagon Moundand Colmor, in the BNSF Raton Sub.

Ridership

Traffic by Fiscal Year (October–September)

	Ridership	Change over previous year	Ticket Revenue	Change over previous year
2007	316,668	-	$37,935,113	-
2008	331,143	04.6%	$41,079,865	08.3%
2009	318,025	04.0%	$38,033,503	07.4%
2010	342,403	07.7%	$41,604,705	09.4%
2011	354,912	03.7%	$44,184,060	06.2%
2012	355,316	00.1%	$44,183,540	00.0%
2013	355,815	00.1%	$45,129,813	02.1%
2014	352,162	01.0%	$44,631,296	01.1%
2015	367,267	04.3%	$44,904,314	00.6%
2016	364,748	00.7%	$43,184,176	03.8%
2017	363,000	00.5%	-	-
2018	331,239	08.7%	-	-
2019	338,180	02.1%	-	-
2020	186,470	043.0%	-	-
2021	135,901	027.1%	-	-
2022	223,654	064.6%	-	-
2023	253,838	013.5%	-	-

External links

Template:Attached KML/Southwest Chief

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Media related toSouthwest Chiefat Wikimedia Commons

• Southwest Chief– Amtrak