Hiawatha Service or Southwest Chief

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

Hiawatha ServiceSouthwest Chief
EndpointsChicago Union Station to MilwaukeeChicago Union Station to Los Angeles
Duration, end to end1 h 29 m43 h 57 m
FrequencyDailyDaily
Trains337 northbound, 338 southbound3 westbound, 4 eastbound
Named stretches with a cited source310
ShowsBig citiesMountains, Desert and canyon, Big rivers
Headline stretchMilwaukee and a glimpse of Lake MichiganRaton Pass
Headline stretch in daylightnorthbound: daylight Feb to Oct; dusk Nov to Jan, 4:36 p.m.; southbound: daylight, 3:04 p.m.westbound: daylight, 8:38 a.m.; eastbound: daylight Feb to Oct; dusk Nov to Jan, 4:47 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.

Stations both routes serve

Chicago Union Station

In the order the Hiawatha Service reaches them. Transfer times are not checked.

Route pages