The San Francisco Zephyr was an Amtrak passenger train that ran between Chicago and Oakland from June 1972 to July 1983.

Between Ogden and Chicago, the Zephyr, Desert Wind, and Pioneer operated as a combined train.

In 1983, the D&RGW chose to join Amtrak, citing increasing losses in passenger operations.

Amtrak re-routed the San Francisco Zephyr over the D&RGW's line between Denver and Salt Lake City, which was its original preference in 1971.

[2][3] In an episode of the British program Great Railway Journeys, broadcast in 1980, the presenter Ludovic Kennedy travels from New York to Los Angeles by rail, riding on the San Francisco Zephyr between Chicago and Oakland.