Borealis or Illinois 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 | Illinois Zephyr | |
|---|---|---|
| Endpoints | Chicago Union Station to St. Paul-Minneapolis | Quincy to Chicago Union Station |
| Duration, end to end | 7 h 31 m | 4 h 21 m |
| Frequency | Daily | Daily |
| Trains | 1333 westbound, 1340 eastbound | 380 eastbound, 383 westbound |
| Named stretches with a cited source | 7 | 3 |
| Shows | Big rivers, Big cities, Wildlife | Big cities |
| Headline stretch | Upper Mississippi River | South Branch of the Chicago River |
| 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. | eastbound: daylight, 10:23 a.m.; westbound: daylight Mar to Sep; dusk Oct; dark Nov to Feb, 6:04 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.