page_title: Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad
section_title: Intercity passenger service
hierarchical_section_title: Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad / History / Intercity passenger service
caption_attribution_description: English: Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Passenger Station, usually called the Iowa City depot.
context_page_description: The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock.
  At the end of 1970, it operated 7,183 miles of road on 10,669 miles of track; that year it reported 20,557 million ton-miles of revenue freight and 118 million passenger-miles.
  The song "Rock Island Line", a spiritual from the late 1920s first recorded in 1934, was inspired by the railway.
context_section_description: In common with most American railroad companies, the Rock Island once operated an extensive passenger service. The primary routes served were: Chicago-Los Angeles, Chicago-Denver, Memphis-Little Rock-Oklahoma City-Tucumcari, and Minneapolis-Dallas. The Rock Island ran both limited and local service on those routes as well as locals on many other lines on its system. In 1937, the Rock Island introduced Diesel power to its passenger service, with the purchase of six lightweight Rocket streamliners.
   In competition with the Santa Fe Chiefs, the Rock Island jointly operated the Golden State Limited (Chicago—Kansas City—Tucumcari—El Paso—Los Angeles) with the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) from 1902–1968. On this route, the Rock Island's train was marketed as a "low altitude" crossing of the Continental Divide. The Rock Island did not concede to the Santa Fe's dominance in the Chicago–Los Angeles travel market and re-equipped the train with new streamlined equipment in 1948. At the same time, the "Limited" was dropped from the train's name and the train was thereafter known as the Golden State. The local run on this line was known as the Imperial, which had a branch operating through the northwestern edge of Mexico.
  The 1948 modernization of the Golden State occurred with some controversy. In 1947, both the Rock Island and Southern Pacific jointly advertised the coming of a new entry in the Chicago-Los Angeles travel market. The Golden Rocket was scheduled to closely match the Santa Fe's transit time end-to-end and was to have its own dedicated trainsets, one purchased by the Rock Island, the other by Southern Pacific. As the Rock Island's set of streamlined passenger cars was being finished, the Southern Pacific abruptly withdrew its purchase. The Rock Island's cars were delivered and would find their way into the Golden State's fleet soon after delivery.
  The Golden State was the last first-class train on the Rock Island, retaining its dining cars and sleeping cars until its last run on February 21, 1968.
  The Rock Island also competed with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad in the Chicago to Denver market. While the Q fielded its Zephyrs on the route, the Rock Island ran the Rocky Mountain Rocket. The RMR split at Limon, Colorado, with half the train diverting to Colorado Springs, an operation known as "The Limon Shuffle". The Rock Island conceded nothing to its rival, even installing ABS signaling on the route west of Lincoln in an effort to maintain transit speed. The train was also re-equipped with streamlined equipment in 1948.
  As the Rocky Mountain Rocket was downgraded due to non-rail competition, the route traveled by the train was gradually shortened from 1966 onward. Its western terminus was cut back first to Omaha, then to Council Bluffs. After briefly running without a name, it was renamed The Cornhusker. Finally, in 1970, the train was cut back to a Chicago-Rock Island run entirely within the confines of the state of Illinois and renamed the Quad Cities Rocket.
  Other trains operated by the Rock Island as part of its Rocket fleet included the Corn Belt Rocket (Chicago—Des Moines—Omaha), the Des Moines-Omaha Limited (Chicago-Des Moines-Omaha), the Twin Star Rocket (Minneapolis—St. Paul—Des Moines—Kansas City—Oklahoma City—Fort Worth—Dallas—Houston), the Zephyr Rocket (Minneapolis—St. Paul—Burlington—St. Louis), the Choctaw Rocket (Memphis—Little Rock—Oklahoma City—Amarillo) and the Cherokee (a local counterpart to the Choctaw Rocket, Memphis-Little Rock-Oklahoma City-Amarillo-Tucumcari-Los Angeles).
  By the time Amtrak was formed in 1971, the once-proud Rock Island was down to just two intercity trains, the Chicago-Peoria Peoria Rocket and the Chicago-Rock Island Quad Cities Rocket, both of which now operated entirely within the borders of Illinois. However, the Rock Island opted against joining Amtrak, in part because the government assessed the Amtrak entrance fee based upon passenger miles operated in 1970. After concluding that the cost of joining would be greater than remaining in the passenger busines
caption: Iowa City Depot, once part of the Rock Island system.
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