Scenic route
California Zephyr
Chicago → San Francisco · United States
California Zephyr in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 3,924 km
- Fastest time
- ≈ 52 h
- Average speed
- 75 km/h
- Top speed
- 127 km/h
- Operator
- Amtrak
- Train
- Amtrak Superliner
- Countries
- United States
- In service since
- 1949
- Runs
- 1× daily each way
- Highest point
- 2,816 m
- Riders per year
- ≈ 400k
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
Two nights, seven states: through the Rockies’ canyons and over Donner Pass, widely called America’s most beautiful train ride.
The Sightseer Lounge is the whole argument: wraparound glass, docent commentary through Colorado, strangers trading wine and life stories as the walls of rock close in. West of Denver the train winds up the Front Range and slips beneath the Continental Divide, then shadows the Colorado River for hours through gorges no road reaches. A desert night across Utah and Nevada ends with a slow, pine-scented crawl over the Sierra crest and the drop to San Francisco Bay.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 8440301 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within 157 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: 98.4% of this line lies within 250 m of real track (median 38 m); the longest stretch away from it is 8.5 km
- Checked against the running timetable via Transitous: our line sits 0.2 km from the shape of 5
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Along the way
- Mississippi crossing at Burlington
- Front Range climb out of Denver
- Moffat Tunnel under the Divide
- Glenwood Canyon river miles
- Ruby Canyon into Utah
- Sierra crest above Donner Lake
More scenic routes
- Glacier Express
“The world’s slowest express”: 291 bridges, 91 tunnels and the 2,033 m Oberalp Pass at an average of 36 km/h.
Wikipedia ↗ - Bernina Express
A UNESCO World Heritage railway: 7 % grades with no rack, the Brusio spiral, and the highest rail crossing of the Alps at 2,253 m.
Wikipedia ↗ - Bergensbanen
Northern Europe’s highest main line: over the bare Hardangervidda plateau at 1,237 m, through 182 tunnels.
Wikipedia ↗ - West Highland Line
Regularly voted the world’s most scenic railway: around Rannoch Moor and over the 21-arch Glenfinnan Viaduct of film fame.
Wikipedia ↗
More train routes in United States.