A number of changes were made in the 18 months between yesterday’s timetable and today’s. The most obvious is that the one-page map on page 5, which is where it was located since the timetables were cut to 20 pages in 1957, was once again turned into a two-page centerfold map. This was accomplished by eliminating a few small ads and combining some of the timetables to one fewer page.

Click image to download an 12.3-MB PDF of this 20-page timetable.

At least one train disappeared. Trains #1 & 2, the unnamed trains between Chicago and Des Moines, have disappeared from this timetable. Meanwhile, train 2’s schedule, which arrived in Chicago at an inconvenient 4:30 am, has been taken by the Des Moines Rocket, which previously was a daylight train. I can’t imagine that Des Moines passengers appreciated that.

Thirty-five minutes were added to train #4, the eastbound Golden State, making it even less competitive with Santa Fe and Union Pacific trains. All of the added minutes were on Rock Island’s side of Tucumcari. The westbound schedule was left unchanged. Rock Island/Southern Pacific still charged an extra fare of $3.50 for Chicago/Kansas City-Los Angeles coach passengers, and $7.50 for sleeping car passengers, which was difficult to justify considering that in 1954 Union Pacific had dropped the extra fare on the faster and (by 1961) dome-equipped City of Los Angeles.