The Homewood, Illinois Amtrak/Metra station, first stop on the Campus schedule.
(Zol87 from Chicago, IL, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
CAMPUS
The Campus was a passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago and Champaign, Illinois. The Chicago-Champaign corridor already saw two trains daily: the Shawnee (Chicago-Carbondale) and the Panama Limited (Chicago-New Orleans). The Campus made a round-trip Friday and Sunday, serving the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. 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, which Amtrak was abandoning; Amtrak judged that the additional 35–40 minutes necessary to serve Union Station made the schedule impractical. The Campus was the last passenger train to use Central Station.
Route
Distance - Station
0 - Chicago
22 mi / 35 km - Homewood
112 mi / 180 km - Rantoul
127 mi / 204 km - Champaign-Urbana
A 1971 Amtrak Timetable. Click to enlarge.
(©1971 National Railroad Passenger Corporation, via timetables.org)
Overview
Service type: Inter-city rail
Status: Discontinued
Locale: Illinois
First service: November 14, 1971
Last service: March 5, 1972
Former operator: Amtrak
Route Termini: Chicago / Champaign-Urbana
Stops: 2
Distance traveled: 127 miles (204 km)
Average journey time: 2 hours 10 minutes
Service frequency: Friday/Sunday
Train numbers: 394 and 395
On-board services
Catering facilities: On-board cafe
Technical
Track gauge 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Track owner: Illinois Central
Chicago's Central Station. Abandoned by Amtrak, the Campus was the last passenger train to use Central Station.
(Photo by Roger Puta, railfan 44, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)