Amtrak Faster to Chicago than closer Kansas City
In October 2021 I booked an Amtrak trip to Chicago for a weekend next month. At that time the trip was scheduled to take 5 hours 40 minutes to Chicago Union Station, via Lincoln Service. This is faster than it has been over the years — improving every year since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was signed by president Obama. Amtrak recently revised my trip — it’ll now take only 5 hours 25 minutes. Fifteen minutes quicker than before!
Amtrak will implement a schedule change for Chicago to St. Louis Lincoln Service and Texas Eagle trains, effective December 13.
These schedules reflect a maximum authorized speed of 90 mph for Trains 300 – 307 and Trains 21 & 22. Chicago to St. Louis corridor travel times are reduced by approximately 15 minutes, end-to-end.
Updated schedules now on Amtrak.com reflect these changes, as do new bookings, eTickets and other boarding documents.
This is a step toward 110 mph schedules that are planned for the next 12 to 18 months. These improvements use federal grants and other funds from the Illinois Department of Transportation. (Amtrak)
These speeds aren’t close to high-speed rail experienced in other parts of the world, but it is very welcomed.
Driving a car is still faster, but it’s exhausting and very expensive to park in Chicago, station to station is 297 miles, requiring 4 hours 20 minutes. Of course, that’s assuming no restroom/eating/stretch breaks.
Kansas City is closer to St. Louis than Chicago is, so you’d think both driving & train travel would be less. Driving is 250 miles — 47 miles less than to Chicago, requiring 3 hours 37 minutes. Makes sense. The train trip to Chicago, however, is 5 hours 40 minutes.
Yes, the trips used to take the same amount of time even though one is closer. Now the STL to CHI train is faster. Once more improvements and speeds of 110 mph are achieved the time difference of traveling to Chicago compared to Kansas City will be even greater.
It would be nice to see similar improvements made to better connect St. Louis and Kansas City, spanning the width of the state.
— Steve Patterson