During holidays, and during home Wisconsin Badgers football games at Camp Randall Stadium, the Varsity carried additional cars.

By the late 1950s, the Varsity began to face declining ridership due to growing subsidies for air and car travel.

In the fall of 2014, it was announced that Pullman Rail Journeys, owned by Iowa Pacific Holdings, would operate a limited number of trains in October 2014 between Chicago and Madison.

[4]Leaving Chicago Union Station, the Varsity traveled on what is now the Milwaukee District / North Line, making stops in Glenview and Fox Lake, Illinois.

After crossing into Wisconsin, the train then continued on, making stops in Walworth, Avalon, Janesville, Edgerton, Stoughton, and McFarland, before crossing Lake Monona, and the Chicago and Northwestern Railway line in the middle of the lake, and arriving in at the Milwaukee Road Depot in downtown Madison.