Originally Posted by saxman66

All of the east-west long distance connections in Chicago are "guaranteed." This means all these trains are meant to connect to each other on the same day. The guaranteed part means Amtrak will get you from your ticketed city pairs in one form or another. If there's a possibility to miss a connection in Chicago, Amtrak is already looking at alternate travel or hotels. Sometimes, they may take you off early like Galesburg, IL and bus you to somewhere in Indiana to catch up. Sometimes, they will hold the connecting train as long as that train doesn't get too delayed. The last option is they will put you in a hotel in Chicago and send you on the next days train. They'll give you food and taxi voucher as well if this happens. Lastly, the Lake Shore Limited is pretty much the "clean up" train. It's the last eastbound departure for the night, so they could put miss connects from the Capitol, and Cardinal on their depending on destination. It's best you book the LSL anyway if your final in BOS.