Illini and Saluki

History

The Illinois Central Railroad's main line between Chicago and New Orleans 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 in Chicago over this route, including the Illini and Shawnee (Chicago-Carbondale), the City of New Orleans and the Panama Limited (both, Chicago–New Orleans), plus the City of Miami (Chicago–Birmingham).

Amtrak retained two trains on this route: the City of New Orleans (which it named the Panama Limited) and the Shawnee. Amtrak brought back the Illini name on November 14, 1971, as a Chicago-Champaign train, operating in conjunction with the Campus. It was named for the Illini, from which the state of Illinois and the Fighting Illini mascot of the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign get their names. Amtrak discontinued the Campus and Illini on March 5, 1972. Both trains used Central Station, which Amtrak was abandoning; Amtrak judged that the additional 35–40 minutes necessary to serve Union Station 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 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 (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, 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.

Equipment

A typical Illini or Saluki consists of one Siemens Charger locomotive and seven Superliner coaches.

Since the early 2010s, CN has required that Amtrak trains on the Chicago–Carbondale route have 32 axles (one locomotive and seven passenger cars) in order to properly trigger grade crossing detection devices on the route. Trains typically had several Amfleet or Horizon Fleet passenger cars; unoccupied Heritage Fleet dining cars and baggage cars, then later Viewliner II baggage cars, were used to meet the axle count. In 2020, CN began requiring Amtrak to use trains with seven bilevel Superliner cars, rather than less-heavy single-level equipment. This meant that 14 Superliners required for the Illini and Saluki could not be used for long-distance trains.

In October 2024, Amtrak was awarded a $59 million federal grant to install shunt enhancer devices on its locomotives and cab cars to remove this requirement. When completed, this will allow single-level equipment to again be assigned to the route, freeing up the Superliners for other trains.

Route

The Illini and Saluki operates over the Canadian National Railway, successor to the Illinois Central. The route is 309 mi long.

The Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (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's Chicago Line in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood in Chicago. This will eliminate a time-consuming switchback on the St. Charles Air Line into Chicago Union Station.

The trains have stops near three major Illinois state universities: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Southern Illinois University, and Eastern Illinois University in Charleston (near Mattoon). As a result, university students account for a significant portion of passengers.

Station Stops

The entire route is in the U.S. state of Illinois.

References

Notes

References

1. "Amtrak Timetable Results".
2. "Amtrak FY23 Ridership".
3. {{Harvnb. Schafer. 1996
4. "Passenger trains operating on the eve of Amtrak".
5. {{Harvnb. Sanders. 2006
6. {{Harvnb. Sanders. 2006
7. {{Harvnb. Sanders. 2006
8. (July 26, 1973). "Amtrak to Expand Illinois Routes". [[Tribune-Star.
9. {{Harvnb. Sanders. 2006
10. (July 1, 1981). "New Amtrak service". [[Southeast Missourian]].
11. (December 24, 1985). "Amtrak plans to cut service". [[Ludington Daily News]].
12. {{Harvnb. Sanders. 2006
13. Binder, Steve. (June 20, 1996). "City helps passenger train keep rolling". The Southern Illinoisan.
14. Erickson, Kurt. (October 28, 2006). "Deal clears way for Amtrak service". Journal Gazette.
15. Hale, Caleb. (October 18, 2006). "It's official: Saluki Train hits the tracks". The Southern Illinoisan.
16. Johnston, Bob. (August 7, 2017). "Amtrak announces 'Eclipse Express' special to southern Illinois".
17. Johnston, Bob. (September 5, 2023). "The quest to counteract 'loss of shunt:' Special Report". Trains News Wire.
18. (October 31, 2024). "Amtrak Receives Federal Grants to Improve Chicago Service and Support Partner Projects across the Midwest". Amtrak.
19. (January 12, 2015). "Amtrak service in ILLINOIS and MISSOURI". [[Amtrak]].
20. (November 2015). "P4 Grand Crossing". CREATE.
21. {{Harvnb. Sanders. 2006