California Zephyr or Cardinal
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
| California Zephyr | Cardinal | |
|---|---|---|
| Endpoints | Chicago Union Station to Emeryville | Chicago Union Station to New York Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station |
| Duration, end to end | 52 h 57 m | 27 h 33 m |
| Frequency | Daily | 3 days a week |
| Trains | 5 westbound, 6 eastbound | 50 eastbound, 51 westbound |
| Named stretches with a cited source | 14 | 6 |
| Shows | Big rivers, Mountains, Desert and canyon, Snow, Big cities | Big rivers, Mountains, National parks, Big cities |
| Headline stretch | Front Range and Moffat Tunnel | New River Gorge |
| Headline stretch in daylight | westbound: daylight, 9:47 a.m.; eastbound: daylight Feb to Oct; dusk Nov to Jan, 4:57 p.m. | eastbound: daylight, 9:56 a.m.; westbound: daylight May to Aug; dusk Sep; dark Oct to Feb; dusk Mar to Apr, 7:38 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.