Illinois Zephyr or Pere Marquette
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
| Illinois Zephyr | Pere Marquette | |
|---|---|---|
| Endpoints | Quincy to Chicago Union Station | Chicago Union Station to Grand Rapids Vernon J. Ehlers |
| Duration, end to end | 4 h 21 m | 4 h 4 m |
| Frequency | Daily | Daily |
| Trains | 380 eastbound, 383 westbound | 370 eastbound, 371 westbound |
| Named stretches with a cited source | 3 | 4 |
| Shows | Big cities | |
| Headline stretch | South Branch of the Chicago River | Michigan's west coast at St. Joseph |
| Headline stretch in daylight | eastbound: daylight, 10:23 a.m.; westbound: daylight Mar to Sep; dusk Oct; dark Nov to Feb, 6:04 p.m. | eastbound: dusk Jun to Jul; dark Aug to May, 9:31 p.m.; westbound: daylight Apr to Aug; dawn Sep to Mar, 7:50 a.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.