California Zephyr

The California Zephyr is a 2,438-mile (3,924 km) passenger train route operated by Amtrak from Chicago, Illinois, in the east to Emeryville, California, in the west, passing through the states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California. The route is the longest and one of the most scenic routes run by Amtrak, with views of the upper Colorado River valley in the Rocky Mountains, and the Sierra Nevada.

Prior to the formation of Amtrak, the California Zephyr (the CZ, or "Silver Lady") was a passenger train operated jointly by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) and Western Pacific Railroad (WP). The CB&Q, D&RGW and WP christened "The most talked about train in America" on March 19, 1949 with the first departure the following day. It was purposefully scheduled so that the train passed through the most spectacular scenery in the daylight.

The original CZ ceased operations in 1970. However, the D&RGW continued to operate its own passenger train service, named the Rio Grande Zephyr, between Salt Lake City and Denver using the original equipment until 1983.

Since 1983 the California Zephyr name has been applied to a Chicago-San Francisco Amtrak service, which operates daily and is a hybrid route between the route of the original CZ and the route of its former rival, the City of San Francisco.

Another former rival was the San Francisco Chief.

A small blurb in the July 2010 Trains magazine stated that this train is listed not only for route improvement, but also to host a second route, the discontinued Desert Wind route. The following is what is listed for the Zephyr route:

• Possible Desert Wind extension, Salt Lake City-Los Angeles via Las Vegas, Nevada
• Possible equipment upgrades similar to that of the Empire Builder, possibly regardless if the first change is successful or not.

During fiscal year 2011, the California Zephyr carried over 350,000 passengers, a decrease of 6% from FY2010. The train had a total revenue of $44,751,539 during FY2011, which is a 2.3% increase from FY2010.