Borealis or California Zephyr
The two routes share one station, Chicago Union Station. The table lists what each shows and how long each takes; the route pages carry the full stretch tables.
Side by side
| Borealis | California Zephyr | |
|---|---|---|
| Endpoints | Chicago Union Station to St. Paul-Minneapolis | Chicago Union Station to Emeryville |
| Duration, end to end | 7 h 31 m | 52 h 57 m |
| Frequency | Daily | Daily |
| Trains | 1333 westbound, 1340 eastbound | 5 westbound, 6 eastbound |
| Named stretches with a cited source | 7 | 14 |
| Shows | Big rivers, Big cities, Wildlife | Big rivers, Mountains, Desert and canyon, Snow, Big cities |
| Headline stretch | Upper Mississippi River | Front Range and Moffat Tunnel |
| Headline stretch in daylight | westbound: daylight Mar to Oct; dark Nov to Jan; dusk Feb, 5:26 p.m.; eastbound: daylight, 1:03 p.m. | westbound: daylight, 9:47 a.m.; eastbound: daylight Feb to Oct; dusk Nov to Jan, 4:57 p.m. |
Duration, frequency, and daylight are computed from the Amtrak GTFS timetable (fetched 2026-10-15) for the representative trip in each direction; daylight is the phrase for the headline stretch, the highlighted row of each route page. Named stretches are counted from the cited route guides. How these are computed.