The ''Campus'' was a short lived passenger train 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 intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

between

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and

Champaign, Illinois Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in ...

. The Chicago-Champaign corridor already saw two trains daily: the ''

Shawnee The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language. Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...

'' (Chicago- Carbondale) and the ''

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 y ...

'' (Chicago-

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

). The ''Campus'' made a round-trip Friday and Sunday, serving the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

. A second train, the '' Illini'', made a Friday trip. The ''Campus'' first appeared on the November 14, 1971, timetable, the first timetable Amtrak issued with its own numbers. Amtrak discontinued the ''Campus'' and ''Illini'' on March 5, 1972. Both trains had used

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 ...

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

Union Station A union station, union terminal, joint station, or joint-use station is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway company, railway companies, allowing passengers to connect conveniently bet ...

made the schedule impractical.In fact, a re-launched ''Illini'' needed only an additional fifteen minutes to make the trip in 1974. The ''Campus'' was the last passenger train to use Central Station.

References

{{Former Amtrak routes Former Amtrak routes Passenger rail transportation in Illinois Railway services introduced in 1971 Railway services discontinued in 1972