Crescent (train)

The Crescent is a daily long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak between New York City and New Orleans (the "Crescent City"). The 1,377-mile (2,216 km) route connects the Northeast to the Gulf Coast via the Appalachian Piedmont, with major stops in Charlotte, North Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; and Birmingham, Alabama.

Crescent

The Crescent crossing the Pearl River near Picayune, Mississippi, in March 2010
Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Locale	Eastern United States
Current operator(s)	Amtrak
Former operator(s)	Southern Railway (1970–1979)
Annual ridership	271,518 (FY23) 34.0%^[a]^[1]
Route
Termini	New York City, New York New Orleans, Louisiana
Stops	33
Distance travelled	1,377 mi (2,216 km)
Average journey time	Southbound: 30 hours, 47 minutes Northbound: 32 hours, 36 minutes
Service frequency	Daily
Train number(s)	19 (southbound), 20 (northbound)
On-board services
Class(es)	Coach Class, Sleeper Class
Seating arrangements	Reserved coach seating
Sleeping arrangements	Viewliner Roomette (2 beds) Viewliner Bedroom (2 beds) Viewliner Bedroom Suite (4 beds) Viewliner Accessible Bedroom (2 beds)
Catering facilities	Dining car, lounge café car
Baggage facilities	Checked baggage available at selected stations
Technical
Rolling stock	Viewliner and Amfleet
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Operating speed	Up to 125 miles per hour (201 km/h) (Northeast Corridor)
Track owner(s)	Amtrak, CSX, NS
Route map Legend 0 mi New York City Hudson River NY NJ North River Tunnels 10 mi 16 km Newark Penn 24 mi 39 km Metropark § 58 mi 93 km Trenton NJ PA 91 mi 146 km Philadelphia–30th Street PA DE 116 mi 187 km Wilmington DE MD 185 mi 298 km Baltimore 196 mi 315 km BWI Airport § MD DC 225 mi 362 km Washington, D.C. DC VA 233 mi 375 km Alexandria 258 mi 415 km Manassas 293 mi 472 km Culpeper 337 mi 542 km Charlottesville 398 mi 641 km Lynchburg 461 mi 742 km Danville VA NC 509 mi 819 km Greensboro 524 mi 843 km High Point 559 mi 900 km Salisbury 601 mi 967 km Charlotte 623 mi 1003 km Gastonia NC SC 678 mi 1091 km Spartanburg 709 mi 1141 km Greenville 739 mi 1189 km Clemson SC GA 773 mi 1244 km Toccoa 810 mi 1304 km Gainesville 859 mi 1382 km Atlanta GA AL 959 mi 1543 km Anniston 1023 mi 1646 km Birmingham 1078 mi 1735 km Tuscaloosa AL MS 1175 mi 1891 km Meridian 1231 mi 1981 km Laurel 1260 mi 2028 km Hattiesburg 1324 mi 2131 km Picayune MS LA 1342 mi 2160 km Slidell City of New Orleans to Chicago 1377 mi 2216 km New Orleans 1377 mi 2216 km Proposed section to Fort Worth 1377 mi 2216 km Proposed section to Fort Worth 1377 mi 2216 km City of New Orleans to New Orleans Jackson City of New Orleans to Chicago Vicksburg MS LA Monroe Ruston Shreveport LA TX Texas Eagle to Chicago Marshall Longview Mineola Dallas Heartland Flyer to Oklahoma City Fort Worth Texas Eagle to San Antonio or Los Angeles = flag stop § = only served by train 20 This diagram: view talk edit

Most of the route of the Crescent is on the Norfolk Southern Railway. It is the successor of the Southern Crescent, introduced in 1970 by Norfolk Southern's predecessor, the Southern Railway.

History

Southerner

Main article: Southerner (U.S. train)

Today's Crescent is a direct descendant of the Southerner, a streamlined passenger train operated by the Southern Railway from 1941 to 1970. The daily train followed essentially the same route as the modern Crescent, providing sleeper service between New York and New Orleans via Washington, Atlanta, and Birmingham.

Southern Crescent

Since its inception, the sister train of the Southerner was a second New York–New Orleans sleeper, the Southern Railway's Crescent. The two trains shared generally the same route between New York and Atlanta, but diverged between Atlanta and New Orleans. The Crescent took a more coastal route, operating via Mobile and Montgomery over Atlanta and West Point Railroad, Western Railway of Alabama, and Louisville & Nashville Railroad trackage. The Southerner stayed inland to run exclusively on Southern Railway trackage through Birmingham.

 

Southern Railway's Southern Crescent at Peachtree station on January 21, 1971

In 1970, amid a push by its partners to discontinue passenger operations, the Southern Railway merged the Southerner and the Crescent into one service: the Southern Crescent. The new train used the route of the Southerner, operating via Birmingham instead of Mobile. Although the Birmingham route was slightly longer, it was fully owned by the Southern Railway and therefore more reliable. The Southern Crescent was numbered 1 southbound and 2 northbound. Penn Central carried it between Washington and New York along the Northeast Corridor, inheriting the longstanding haulage agreement from the Pennsylvania Railroad.

For most of the 1970s, the Southern Crescent was supplemented by the Piedmont, a former New York–New Orleans train that had been cut back to a regional Atlanta–Washington (later Charlotte–Washington and Salisbury–Washington) service running along the middle leg of the Southern Crescent route.^{[citation needed]}

Amtrak took over most inter-city passenger trains in the United States on May 1, 1971, but the Southern Railway initially opted out. Amtrak did inherit most of Penn Central's passenger services, including the haulage agreement for the Southern Crescent. For a portion of the mid-1970s, the Southern Crescent only operated tri-weekly between Atlanta and New Orleans, and carried a run-through Amtrak 10-6 sleeper on those days to connect to the Sunset Limited. On occasion, when the Southern deemed an Amtrak car to be short of its standards, it substituted a Southern sleeper in the consist. Additionally, one of the two dome coaches in the Southern car fleet was added for the leg south of Atlanta.^{[citation needed]}

The Southern Crescent was one of the last two privately operated long-distance passenger services in the United States, the other being the Rio Grande Zephyr. However, mounting revenue losses and equipment-replacement expenses forced Southern Railway to leave the passenger business.

Amtrak era

The Southern Railway turned over full operation of the Southern Crescent to Amtrak on February 1, 1979. Amtrak simplified the name to the Crescent and renumbered it 19 southbound and 20 northbound, though for several years the Southern assigned it operating numbers 819 and 820.^[2][3] The train began using rebuilt Heritage Fleet equipment in 1981.^[4]: 78

 

The Amtrak Crescent dining car in 2019

On October 28, 1989, Amtrak added a section of the Crescent between Birmingham and Mobile, Alabama, known as the Gulf Breeze. It ran until April 1, 1995, when it was cancelled due to budget issues. A replacement Amtrak Thruway bus ran until October 16, 1997. The Atlanta–New Orleans portion of the Crescent was reduced to tri-weekly operation from April 2, 1995, to November 11, 1996 (quad-weekly from November 1995 to February 1996).^[5]

When Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in August 2005, the Crescent was temporarily truncated to Atlanta. Service was restored first as far as Meridian, Mississippi, while Norfolk Southern crews worked to repair the damage to their lines serving the Gulf Coast. Amtrak restored Crescent and City of New Orleans service to New Orleans on October 9, 2005.^[6]

From July 10 to September 1, 2017, the train terminated at Washington, D.C. instead of New York City due to track work at Penn Station.^[7] Starting October 1, 2019, traditional dining car services were removed and replaced with a reduced menu of 'Flexible Dining' options. As a result, the dining car serves as a lounge car for the exclusive use by sleeping car passengers.^[8]

As part of Amtrak's Network Growth Strategy (NGS), adding a section from Meridian, Mississippi to Fort Worth, Texas has been discussed since the early 2000's, with the route having supposed to been up and running by 2002. The plan fell through when Amtrak abandoned the NGS.^[9] However, in March 2023, Amtrak announced that it is seeking federal funding to once again study this proposal. Due to Kansas City Southern Railway's (KCS) continued opposition to hosting this train on the Meridian Speedway, the study was dependent on a proposed merger between the KCS and Canadian Pacific Railway being approved by the United States Surface Transportation Board.^[10] This merger was approved on March 15, 2023,^[11] and officially went into effect on April 14, 2023, allowing this proposal to move forward.^[12][13] In June 2023, Amtrak applied for funding to begin the project to extend service from Mississippi to Texas along the I-20 corridor.^[14]

Route

 

Route map of the Crescent

The tracks used were once part of the Pennsylvania Railroad; Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad; Southern Railway and North Carolina Railroad systems; they are now owned by Amtrak, CSX Transportation, and Norfolk Southern Railway, respectively. The following lines are used:^{[citation needed]}

• New York City to Washington, D.C.: Northeast Corridor, ex-Pennsylvania Railroad, now Amtrak
• Washington to Alexandria, Virginia: Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, now CSX
• Alexandria to Danville, Virginia: Virginia Midland Railway (ex-Southern Railway), now Norfolk Southern
• Danville to Greensboro, North Carolina: Piedmont Air-Line Railway (ex-Southern Railway), now NS
• Greensboro to Charlotte, North Carolina: North Carolina Railroad (formerly leased by Southern Railway), track managed by NS
• Charlotte to Atlanta, Georgia: Atlanta and Charlotte Air-Line Railway (ex-Southern Railway), now NS
• Atlanta to Birmingham, Alabama: Georgia Pacific Railway (ex-Southern Railway), now NS
• Station and adjacent tracks in Birmingham: Louisville and Nashville Railroad, now CSX
• Birmingham to Meridian, Mississippi: Alabama Great Southern Railroad (ex-Southern Railway), now NS
• Meridian to New Orleans, Louisiana: New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad (ex-Southern Railway), now NS

Rolling stock

In December 2020, a usual consist on the Crescent included:^[15]

• 2 GE P42DC diesel locomotive (1 Siemens ACS-64 electric locomotive north of Washington, D.C.)
• 3 Amfleet II coaches
• 1 Amfleet II café car
• 2 Viewliner sleeping cars
• 1 Viewliner baggage-dorm

Siemens ALC-42 locomotives began replacing the P42DC locomotives on the Crescent in 2023.^[16] Amtrak plans to replace the Amfleet cars with new long-distance cars by 2032.^[17]

Station stops

State	Town/city	Station	Connections
NY	New York City	Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station	Amtrak (long-distance): Cardinal, Lake Shore Limited, Palmetto, Silver Meteor, Silver Star   Amtrak (intercity): Acela, Adirondack, Berkshire Flyer, Carolinian, Empire Service, Ethan Allen Express, Keystone Service, Maple Leaf, Northeast Regional, Pennsylvanian, Vermonter   LIRR: ■ Main Line, ■ Port Washington Branch   NJ Transit: ■ North Jersey Coast Line, ■ Northeast Corridor Line, ■ Gladstone Branch, ■ Montclair-Boonton Line, ■ Morristown Line   NYC Subway:  ​ ​  ​ ​    PATH: HOB-33 JSQ-33 JSQ-33 (via HOB)   NYC Transit Bus
NJ	Newark	Newark Penn Station	Amtrak: Acela, Carolinian, Cardinal, Keystone Service, Northeast Regional, Pennsylvanian, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Vermonter   NJ Transit: ■ North Jersey Coast Line, ■ Northeast Corridor Line, ■ Raritan Valley Line   PATH: NWK-WTC   Newark Light Rail   NJ Transit Bus
	Trenton	Trenton	Amtrak: Carolinian, Cardinal, Keystone Service, Northeast Regional, Pennsylvanian, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Vermonter   NJ Transit: ■ Northeast Corridor Line, ■ River Line   SEPTA Regional Rail: ■ Trenton Line   NJ Transit Bus, SEPTA Suburban Bus
PA	Philadelphia	30th Street Station	Amtrak: Acela, Carolinian, Cardinal, Keystone Service, Northeast Regional, Palmetto, Pennsylvanian, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Vermonter   SEPTA Regional Rail: all routes   NJ Transit: ■ Atlantic City Line   SEPTA City Transit: Market-Frankford Subway-Surface   SEPTA City Bus, SEPTA Suburban Bus
DE	Wilmington	Wilmington	Amtrak: Acela, Carolinian, Cardinal, Palmetto, Northeast Regional, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Vermonter   SEPTA Regional Rail: ■ Wilmington/​Newark Line   DART First State   Greyhound Lines
MD	Baltimore	Baltimore	Amtrak: Acela, Carolinian, Cardinal, Palmetto, Northeast Regional, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Vermonter   MARC: ■ Penn Line   Light RailLink   MTA Maryland, Charm City Circulator
	Hanover	BWI Airport	Amtrak: Acela, Northeast Regional, Vermonter   BWI Marshall Airport Shuttle to   Baltimore/Washington International Airport   MTA Maryland, UMBC Transit
DC	Washington	Washington Union Station	Amtrak: Acela, Capitol Limited, Carolinian, Cardinal, Palmetto, Northeast Regional, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Vermonter   MARC: ■ Brunswick Line, ■ Camden Line, ■ Penn Line   VRE: ■ Manassas Line, ■ Fredericksburg Line   Metro:   Red Line   DC Streetcar: H Street/Benning Road Line   Metrobus, DC Circulator, MTA Maryland, Loudoun County Transit, OmniRide   Intercity bus:   Greyhound,   Megabus, BoltBus, BestBus, Peter Pan, OurBus
VA	Alexandria	Alexandria	Amtrak: Carolinian, Cardinal, Northeast Regional, Silver Meteor, Silver Star   VRE: ■ Fredericksburg Line, ■ Manassas Line   Metro:   Blue Line,   Yellow Line   Metrobus, DASH
	Manassas	Manassas	Amtrak: Cardinal, Northeast Regional   VRE: ■ Manassas Line   PRTC
	Culpeper	Culpeper	Amtrak: Cardinal, Northeast Regional
	Charlottesville	Charlottesville	Amtrak: Cardinal, Northeast Regional, Amtrak Thruway to Richmond, Washington, D.C.   Charlottesville Area Transit   Greyhound Lines
	Lynchburg	Lynchburg	Amtrak: Northeast Regional   Greater Lynchburg Transit Company   Greyhound Lines
	Danville	Danville
NC	Greensboro	Greensboro	Amtrak: Carolinian, Piedmont   Greensboro Transit Authority, Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation   Greyhound Lines
	High Point	High Point	Amtrak: Carolinian, Piedmont, Amtrak Thruway to Winston-Salem, North Carolina   Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation
	Salisbury	Salisbury	Amtrak: Carolinian, Piedmont
	Charlotte	Charlotte	Amtrak: Carolinian, Piedmont   Charlotte Area Transit System
	Gastonia	Gastonia
SC	Spartanburg	Spartanburg
	Greenville	Greenville	Greenlink
	Clemson	Clemson	Clemson Area Transit
GA	Toccoa	Toccoa
	Gainesville	Gainesville	Red Rabbit Bus
	Atlanta	Peachtree	MARTA Bus
AL	Anniston	Anniston	ACTS
	Birmingham	Birmingham	BJCTA MAX Bus   Greyhound Lines
	Tuscaloosa	Tuscaloosa	Tuscaloosa Transit Authority
MS	Meridian	Meridian Union Station	Greyhound Lines
	Laurel	Laurel
	Hattiesburg	Hattiesburg	Hub City Transit
	Picayune	Picayune
LA	Slidell	Slidell
	New Orleans	New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal	Amtrak: City of New Orleans, Sunset Limited   Streetcar: 49 Rampart–St. Claude Line   RTA Bus   Greyhound Lines

References

1. "Amtrak Fiscal Year 2023 Ridership" (PDF). Amtrak. November 27, 2023. Retrieved November 30, 2023.
2. Amtrak Colors for Crescent Railway Age January 5, 1979, page 25
3. Lang, Neil (November 1977). (PDF). Pacific News. No. 208. p. 17. ISSN 0030-879X. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 20, 2022.
4. Schafer, Mike (1991). All Aboard Amtrak: 1971–1991. Piscataway, New Jersey: Railpace Co. ISBN 978-0-9621-5414-0. OCLC 24545029.
5. Warner, David C.; Goldberg, Bruce (2021). Fifty Years of Amtrak Trains: A Comprehensive Survey of Amtrak Routes: 1971–2021. Bucklin, Missouri: White River Productions. pp. 112–115. ISBN 978-1-932804-70-6.
6. (Press release). Amtrak. October 10, 2005. Archived from the original on October 8, 2005.
7. . Amtrak. 2017. Archived from the original on August 9, 2017.
8. "Amtrak Introduces Enhanced Menu and Flexible Dining Experience on Five Routes" (Press release). Amtrak. September 13, 2019.
9. "Amtrak Plans for Successful Future" (PDF). trb.org. Retrieved March 12, 2023.
10. "New FRA grant funds to be sought to consider the I-20 route". Amtrak Media Center. March 10, 2023. Retrieved March 12, 2023.
11. Fung, Esther (March 15, 2023). "Canadian Pacific's Merger With Kansas City Southern Is Approved". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
12. "Amtrak Statement from CEO Stephen J. Gardner regarding CP-KCS Merger Decision". Amtrak. March 15, 2023. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
13. "Merger between Kansas City Southern Rail, Canadian Pacific now official". KMBC News. April 15, 2023. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
14. Anderson, Kyle (June 5, 2023). "Amtrak Applies for Federal Grants to Improve Long Distance Network". Amtrak Media. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
15. Butterworth, Scott (December 31, 2020). . Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 2, 2021.
16. Paul, Joe Sr.; Welsh, Michael; Kraft, Michael (February 2024). "Amtrak New Fleet Acquisition Updates" (PDF). Next Generation Corridor Equipment Pool Committee. p. 7.
17. "FY 2022-2027 Service and Asset Line Plans" (PDF). Amtrak. 2021. p. 133.

Further reading

• Stout, Greg (2005). Southern Railway Through Passenger Service in Color (1st ed.). Morning Sun Books. ISBN 978-1582481661.
• Schafer, Mike. "Amtrak's Atlas," Trains, June 1991.

Notes

1. Amtrak's Fiscal Year (FY) runs from October 1 of the prior year to September 30 of the named year.

External links

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• Crescent – Amtrak