The ''Illini'' and ''Saluki'' are a pair of

passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be self-propelled; self pr ...

s operated by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

along a route between

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

Carbondale, Illinois Carbondale is a city in Jackson and Williamson Counties, Illinois, United States, within the Southern Illinois region informally known as "Little Egypt". The city developed from 1853 because of the stimulation of railroad construction into the ...

. They are part of Amtrak's

Illinois Service The ''Illinois Service'', branded Amtrak Illinois, comprises three passenger rail routes operated by Amtrak in the American state of Illinois. The ''Illinois Service'' is funded primarily by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). Ch ...

and are primarily funded by the state of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. The route is coextensive with the far northern leg of the long-distance ''

City of New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

The

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also co ...

's main line between Chicago and

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

ran through Champaign–Urbana and Carbondale, along the east side of Illinois. At the formation of Amtrak in 1971, the Illinois Central still operated a number of services from its

Central Station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

in Chicago over this route, including the ''Illini'' and ''

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

'' (Chicago-Carbondale), the ''

City of New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Panama Limited The ''Panama Limited'' was a passenger train operated from 1911 to 1971 between Chicago, Illinois, and New Orleans, Louisiana. The flagship train of the Illinois Central Railroad, it took its name from the Panama Canal, which in 1911 was three yea ...

'' (both, Chicago–New Orleans), plus the ''

City of Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at t ...

'' (Chicago–Birmingham). Amtrak retained two trains on this route: the ''City of New Orleans'' (which it named the ''Panama Limited'') and the ''

''. Amtrak brought back the ''Illini'' name on November 14, 1971, as a Chicago-Champaign train, operating in conjunction with the ''

Campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

''. It was named for the Illini, from which the state of Illinois and the Fighting Illini mascot of the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

get their names. Amtrak discontinued the ''Campus'' and ''Illini'' on March 5, 1972. Both trains used

, which Amtrak was abandoning; Amtrak judged that the additional 35–40 minutes necessary to serve

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

made the schedule impractical. The 1972 ''Illini'' made its last trip on March 3. Amtrak revived the ''Illini'' on December 19, 1973, again as a Chicago–Champaign service. The restoration was part of $1.5 million expansion program which included the '' Black Hawk'' (Chicago–Rockford–Dubuque), the '' State House'' (St. Louis–Chicago), and supplemental funding for the Rock Island's two remaining Rockets (Chicago–Peoria and Chicago–Rock Island). The state desired to extend the ''Illini'' to Decatur, but doing so involved a switch from the Illinois Central to the

Norfolk & Western The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisi ...

at Tolono, south of Champaign. The connection between the lines was in poor condition, and no one would take responsibility for repairing it. Amtrak finally extended the ''Illini'' to Decatur on July 2, 1981. Decatur had last seen service in 1971 from the Norfolk & Western's ''

City of Decatur The ''Blue Bird'' was a streamlined passenger train operated by the Wabash Railroad and its successor the Norfolk and Western Railway between Chicago, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri. It operated from 1938 to 1971. Beginning in 1950 it was one ...

'' (Chicago–Decatur) and the Wabash's '' Wabash Cannon Ball'' (Detroit–St. Louis). Neither train had been retained by Amtrak. The new Amtrak service used the old Wabash station, which still stands and has become an antique store. Poor ridership prompted Illinois to withdraw its support for the Decatur stop, and Amtrak cut the ''Illini'' back to Champaign on July 10, 1983. On January 12, 1986, Amtrak extended the ''Illini'' to Carbondale to replace the ''Shawnee'', which had been canceled because of budget cuts. Service began at Gilman on October 26, 1986, and Du Quoin on August 25, 1989. The ''Illini'' service was nearly canceled in 1996, but local communities along the route pledged funds to keep it running. A second train, the ''Saluki'', was added on October 30, 2006, in response to increased demand on the ''Illini'' and other Illinois Service trains in the 2005–2006 fiscal year. The ''Saluki'' was named for the mascot of

Southern Illinois University Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois. Board of trustees The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of Tr ...

, which is located in the train's southern terminus of Carbondale. Its morning schedule complements the afternoon schedule of the ''Illini.'' Amtrak ran an extra over the route, the ''Eclipse Express'', for the

solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 The solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, dubbed the "Great American Eclipse" by the media, was a total solar eclipse visible within a band that spanned the contiguous United States from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts. It was also visible as a ...

. The trains have stops near three major Illinois state

universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Southern Illinois University, and

Eastern Illinois University Eastern Illinois University is a public university in Charleston, Illinois. Established in 1895 as the Eastern Illinois State Normal School, a teacher's college offering a two-year degree, Eastern Illinois University gradually expanded into a co ...

in Charleston (near Mattoon). As a result, university students account for a significant portion of passengers.

Route

The ''Illini'' and ''Saluki'' operates over the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

, successor to the Illinois Central. The route is long. The

Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program The Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) Program is a $4.6 billion program to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of freight, commuter and intercity passenger rail and to reduce highway delay in the Chicago regio ...

(CREATE) is in the preliminary design phase for the Grand Crossing Project. This project will reroute the ''Illini'', ''Saluki'', and ''City of New Orleans'' trains from Canadian National Railway's tracks to

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the ...

's Chicago Line in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood in Chicago. This will eliminate a time-consuming switchback on the

St. Charles Air Line The St. Charles Air Line is a rail line in Chicago, Illinois, partially owned by the BNSF Railway, Union Pacific Railroad, and Canadian National Railway. It is currently used by the Canadian National Railway for freight trains and by Amtrak passe ...

into Chicago Union Station.

Station Stops

Ridership

Equipment

In 2021 a typical ''Illini'' or ''Saluki'' consists of: *1

Siemens Charger The Siemens Charger is a family of diesel-electric passenger locomotives designed and manufactured by Siemens Mobility for the North American market. There are five variants of the Charger, tailored for different operators and types of service ...

locomotive *1 Cafe/Sightseeing car *4 Superliner cars

References

* *

Notes

External links

* {{Amtrak routes Amtrak routes Passenger rail transportation in Illinois Railway services introduced in 1973 Railway services introduced in 2006 1973 establishments in Illinois