Desert Wind - History

History

The Desert Wind began on 28 October 1979, amid widespread cutbacks in Amtrak's national network. The original Desert Wind was a day train with Amfleet equipment. The northbound train left Los Angeles mid-day and arrived in Ogden the following morning to connect with the eastbound San Francisco Zephyr. The southbound departed Ogden in the middle of the night after the arrival of the westbound San Francisco Zephyr from Chicago and arrived in Los Angeles in late afternoon. The 811-mile (1,305 km) journey took eighteen hours.

Beginning in 1980 the Desert Wind exchanged a Chicago-Los Angeles through coach with the San Francisco Zephyr; this service expanded in 1982 to include a sleeping car. The Desert Wind's eastern terminus moved to Salt Lake City after the re-named and re-routed California Zephyr began using the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad main line in 1983. Later the Desert Wind and the Pioneer would operate together with the California Zephyr from Chicago to Salt Lake City, where the trains separated.

The Desert Wind largely duplicated the route of the former City of Los Angeles operated by Chicago and North Western Railway and Union Pacific Railroad until 1 May 1971, when Amtrak took over passenger rail operations in the United States. The Desert Wind was discontinued on 12 May 1997, due to low ridership, conflict with freight trains, and budget cuts and replaced with Los Angeles-Las Vegas Thruway Motorcoach service. At that time the train schedule running time between Los Angeles and Las Vegas was 7 hours and 15 minutes, but many times the trains operated over one hour late.