The new train was prompted by the completion the previous October of the $16-million "Kansas City Shortcut", 49 miles of new track that made the route shorter, flatter, and straighter.

A new modern station was built at West Quincy, Missouri (1953) and operated until 1993, when Mississippi River flooding (levee breached) destroyed the facility.

The CB&Q simultaneously launched an overnight Chicago-Kansas City service on the same route under the banner of the American Royal Zephyr.

Intense competition came from the Santa Fe, which ran six daily streamliners in each direction between the city pair on a shorter schedule than CB&Q.

On April 10, 1968, just over 15 years after its promising beginning, the KCZ was discontinued, becoming a nameless local train between Chicago and West Quincy, MO.