little help please travel with son to vegas

i'm planning to take my son 13 to vegas via the southwest chief sleeper from chicago in early august. We'll be coming from minneapolis so how do we transfer easily at chicago and take the sw chief? Thanks in advance, greg

Both the Builder and the SW Chief arrive and depart Chicago Union Station,you should have a 45 minute wait there to board the SW Chief if the
Builder is on time at Chicago
Not sure if "Julie"(Amtrak's ticket computer) will allow that short connection.

Better consider going MSP to Chi the day before and stay the night. Empire Builder likely to be late and you want to make sure you get the SWLtd room that you have reserved.

Welcome, Greg!

Question for you: how do you intend to get to Las Vegas, Nevada? The Southwest Chief doesn’t go there. In fact, none of Amtrak’s trains go there and haven’t since the 1990s. If you see Las Vegas, it’s Las Vegas, New Mexico which is several hundred miles east of Las Vegas, Nevada.

—————

If you know that, and still want to get to Las Vegas via rental car at Needles, CA or Kingman, AZ (or you actually want Las Vegas NM):

When my family took the Southwest Chief to see my sister in we actually flew MSP-Kansas City then took the train KCY - Lamy NM. Didn’t want to backtrack to Chicago. I’d suggest the same, or a bus. If you do transfer in Chicago, you will have to stay overnight in Chicago. The outbound Chief leaves an hour before the inbound Empire Builder arrives, and Amtrak will not hold a train that long for you. Even if it were the other way, I wouldn’t recommend a same-day transfer.

Moderator Note: moved to Amtrak.

There's a Thruway bus connection at Kingman to lost Wages(Las Vegas) via Laughlin Nv

WOW< It took minutes to get some help, btw, i was mistaken we are just interested in the grand canyon with the sw chief and return thru chicago, it is too bad as some have said that their is not enough time between trains, where can the two trains be compared/, thanks again

vegas was on my mind when i first wrote, the grand canyon is our destination, my questions are embarrassingly simple but here goes- can we hop off for a day near the canyon and jump back on when the train returns through on its way back to back to chicago? how does something like that work?, g

Backshophoss wrote:There's a Thruway bus connection at Kingman to lost Wages(Las Vegas) via Laughlin Nv

Yes, but at an unGodly hour of the morning.

Per the timetables (which includes the bus connections), if you take the #3 to Kingman, AZ, you should get there at 11:28pm. A bus will pick you up at 11:50pm and drop you off at the airport at 3:10am. Going back, be at the airport at 9:30pm and you'll be at the station at 1am for a 1:20am pickup by the #4.

Greg,
Have you considered the Grand Canyon Railway? SW Chief to Flagstaff, GCR jitney to Williams, CGR train diectly into Gand Canyon National Park.

GCRY runs a bus connection from Flagstaff's Amtrak station,and returns you there to board the EB SW Chief back to Chicago.including checked Baggage.
This would be part of a packaged plan sold by GCRY or Amrtak including Hotel and Tickets for the train to Grand Canyon.

Given that the connection in Chicago requires an overnight stay, I'd fly to Kansas City and connect there. You can take an afternoon flight, taxi downtown, have dinner at Grunauer or Jack Stack (both by the station) and then board the train when it gets in around 10p.