Crescent (train)

Crescent

Amtrak's Crescent crosses the Pearl River near Picayune, Mississippi
Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Operating
Locale	Eastern United States
First service	February 1, 1979
Current operator(s)	Amtrak
Former operator(s)	Southern Railway as the Southern Crescent
Ridership	833 daily 304,086 total (FY11)
Route
Start	New York City, New York
End	New Orleans, Louisiana
Distance travelled	1,377 mi (2,216 km)
Average journey time	30 hours
Service frequency	Daily
Train number(s)	19, 20
On-board services
Class(es)	Coach and Sleeper Class
Seating arrangements	Reserved Coach Seat
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	See consist description below
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Electrification	New York City-Washington, D.C.
Track owner(s)	Amtrak Norfolk Southern Railway CSX Transportation
Route map Legend Dist. Station x20px 0 mi New York City (subway) x20px NY/NJ border North River Tunnels 10 mi  16 km  Newark 58 mi  93 km  Trenton NJ/PA border 91 mi  146 km  Philadelphia (MFL/SSTL) PA/DE border 116 mi  187 km  Wilmington DE/MD border 185 mi  298 km  Baltimore MD/DC border 225 mi  362 km  Washington, DC DC/VA border 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 border 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 border 678 mi  1091 km  Spartanburg 709 mi  1141 km  Greenville 739 mi  1189 km  Clemson SC/GA border 773 mi  1244 km  Toccoa 810 mi  1304 km  Gainesville 859 mi  1382 km  Atlanta GA/AL border 959 mi  1543 km  Anniston 1023 mi  1646 km  Birmingham 1078 mi  1735 km  Tuscaloosa AL/MS border 1175 mi  1891 km  Meridian 1231 mi  1981 km  Laurel 1260 mi  2028 km  Hattiesburg 1324 mi  2131 km  Picayune MS/LA border 1342 mi  2160 km  Slidell x20px 1377 mi  2216 km  New Orleans

Amtrak Crescent (Interactive map)

The Crescent is a passenger train operated by Amtrak in the eastern part of the United States. It operates 1,377 miles (2,216 km) daily between Pennsylvania Station in New York City and New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal in New Orleans, Louisiana, as train numbers 19 and 20. Most of the route of the Crescent is on the Norfolk Southern Railway. The Crescent passes through more states, including the District of Columbia, than any other Amtrak route.

During fiscal year 2011, the Crescent carried more than 300,000 passengers, up 1.8% from the previous year, and had total revenue of $30,023,636, up 4.6%.

History

19th century

In the 1870s, the Richmond and Danville Railroad (R&D) — the predecessor of the Southern Railway — established the "Piedmont Air Line Route", which connected the northeastern United States with Atlanta and New Orleans via Richmond and via Norfolk Southern's present route through Charlottesville and Lynchburg. The Southern Express and the Southern Mail operated over these routes on an advertised time of 57 hours and 40 minutes, including a change at Atlanta.

On January 4, 1891, the R&D launched the Washington & Southwestern Vestibuled Limited, which connected Washington, D.C., and Atlanta and became the direct ancestor of today's Crescent. "The brochure announcing the train hailed it as 'a service second to none in completeness and elegance of detail ... providing all the latest and best facilities for the comfort and enjoyment of its patrons.'" The Vestibule — so nicknamed because it was the South's first all-year train with vestibuled equipment — "lived up to its billing. Drawing-room and stateroom sleeping cars, dining cars, smoking and library cars, and observation cars embodied the latest, most luxurious designs. They were gas-lighted throughout and equipped with hot and cold running water. The vestibuled platforms proved an interesting novelty; many passengers spent considerable time walking from one car to another just to enjoy the unusual experience of being able to do so without having their hats blown away."

Soon the Washington-to-Atlanta routing expanded via the West Point Route from Atlanta to Montgomery and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad from Montgomery to New Orleans. New York City was brought into the schedule via a connection in Washington with the Pennsylvania Railroad's Congressional Limited. Scheduled time for the New York-to-New Orleans run was advertised as a "40-hour, unprecedented" trip. Because of the popularity of this service, the Vestibule became a solid train of walk-through cars between New York and New Orleans. It also carried the first dining cars to operate between those two cities.

After the R&D was succeeded by the Southern Railway in 1894, the train was called the Washington & Southwestern Limited southbound, and the New York Limited northbound.

Early 20th century

In 1906, the train was renamed the New York & New Orleans Limited and equipped with "club cars" and observation cars.

The train is referred to in the popular 1920’s railroad ballad Wreck of the Old 97, which describes the doomed train No. 97 as “not 38.” Number “38” was the operating number of the northbound New York & New Orleans Limited. No. 97 had operated over the same tracks as No. 38 between Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, and over the same trestle where No. 97 wrecked in 1903. The original songwriter was a Southern Railway employee, who certainly knew which train was No. 38.

The Southern Railway and Southern Pacific discussed the possibility of running a single train from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles via New Orleans, which would have become the first truly transcontinental passenger train. The idea never came to fruition, but from 1993 to 2005,Amtrak's Sunset Limited was a transcontinental train running between Orlando, Florida, and Los Angeles.

According to railroad historian Mike Schafer,

By 1925, the train was re-equipped and renamed the Crescent Limited, a true all-Pullman extra-fare train. . . . By 1938 the name became simply the Crescent. It was dieselized in 1941 and streamlined in 1949. The Crescent also carried the through (coast-to-coast) sleepers of the "Washington-Sunset Route" in conjunction with the Southern Pacific west of New Orleans to Los Angeles.

Mid-20th century

The Crescent Limited was powered after World War II by General Motors' (Electro-Motive Division) EMD E-8 locomotives and FP-7 cab and booster units, in sets of two to five (total 3,000 – 9,000 h.p.).

The 1954 schedule for the 1,355 miles from Atlanta to New York was 32 hours, 55 minutes. Passengers leaving New Orleans would arrive in Atlanta just after lunch time and in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the early evening. North of Charlotte, the train carried sleeper cars only and stopped only to discharge passengers. (Any passenger boarding north of Charlotte was destined beyond Washington, D.C.) Arrival in Washington was about 4:00 a.m., but a sleeping car was uncoupled there and passengers could sleep until a more reasonable hour. Passengers bound farther north would arrive in New York City in the morning.

Southbound, early evening departures from Washington (which had left New York in mid-afternoon) ran all-Pullman from Washington and arrived the next morning in Atlanta. Although the train carried coach cars (and made more stops) between Atlanta and New Orleans, it arrived in the early evening in the Crescent City to connect with the Sunset Limited for Texas and California. A through-sleeper sometimes ran in these two trains, creating a transcontinental Pullman service in which a passenger's sleeping accommodation ran from New York City (or Washington) all the way to Los Angeles.

As passenger service dwindled, the northbound Crescent was combined with the Peach Queen, with coach cars between Atlanta and New York. The southbound Crescent was combined with the Asheville Special and the Augusta Special, and included coaches between New York and Charlotte. It also carried "deadhead" coaches to Atlanta for the return north on the Crescent.

Late 20th century

A northbound Southern Crescent, Train No. 2, at Peachtree Station in Atlanta in 1974.

As Southern's railway partners sought to discontinue passenger services, Southern Railway rerouted the train to an all-Southern route and operated the train as the Southern Crescent between Washington, D.C.'s Union Station and New Orleans. The Southern Crescent inaugurated service in 1970 by combining two trains that had run separately between New York and New Orleans for decades: the Southerner, which ran over the Southern Railway only, between New Orleans and Atlanta via Birmingham; and the original Crescent, which had previously used Atlanta and West Point Railroad, Western Railway of Alabama and Louisville and Nashville Railroad trackage between New Orleans and Atlanta via Mobile. For the combined Southern Crescent, Southern moved the train to the Birmingham route instead of the Mobile route. This routing not only permitted the continuance of the train from Washington, DC to New Orleans; it allowed the Southern to maintain its passenger service standards and the dispatch reliability that inhered from moving the train exclusively over its own rails and system, from the start, to finish of its run. The train was numbered 1 southbound and 2 northbound.

Meanwhile, the A&WP, Western of Alabama, and L&N continued to run the Crescent between Atlanta and New Orleans. Each morning, the Crescent and the Southern Crescent departed Atlanta for New Orleans over different routes. After November 1968, the Crescent was a coach-only train sustained by two storage mail cars. With the discontinuance of the "Humming Bird" on January 9, 1969, it was run combined with the Pan-American south of Montgomery, leaving Atlanta at 7:15 p. m. on the old "Piedmont Limited" schedule. In 1970, with the mail contract cancelled, the Crescent was discontinued.

Southern Railway, a predecessor of Norfolk Southern, initially opted out of Amtrak in 1971. After May 1, 1971, Amtrak, assuming the services of the Penn Central, carried the Southern Crescent between New York and Washington. For a portion of the mid-1970s, Southern 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 unfit for the level of service that the SOU subscribed to, a Southern sleeper would be substituted in the consist. Also, one of the two dome coaches in the Southern car fleet was added for the leg south of Atlanta.

The Southern Crescent was one of the two last privately operated long-distance passenger services in the United States. The other was the Rio Grande Zephyr, which operated until 1983. But, revenue losses and equipment-replacement expenses forced Southern Railway to leave the passenger business and turn over operation of the train to Amtrak on February 1, 1979. Amtrak simplified the name to the Crescent, renumbering it 19 southbound and 20 northbound, although for several years the Southern assigned it operating numbers 819 and 820.

21st century

In its present-day form, the southbound Crescent leaves New York in mid-afternoon and Washington, D.C., in the early evening, passing through the Carolinas overnight for arrival at breakfast-time in Atlanta, lunch-time in Birmingham, and early evening at New Orleans. Northbound trains leave New Orleans at breakfast time and arrive in New York in the early afternoon of the following day.

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 service to New Orleans on October 9, 2005, with the northbound Crescent's 7:05 AM departure; the first southbound arrival occurred later in the day.

In the January 2011 issue of Trains Magazine, this route was listed as one of five routes to be looked at by Amtrak in FY 2011 as the previous five routes (Sunset, Eagle, Zephyr, Capitol, and Cardinal) were examined in FY 2010.

Route

The tracks used were once part of the Pennsylvania Railroad; Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad; and Southern Railway systems; they are now owned by Amtrak, CSX Transportation, and Norfolk Southern Railway, respectively. The following lines are used:

• North of Washington, D.C.: 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 (ex-Southern Railway), now 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

Consist

A usual consist on the Crescent is as follows:

• 2 P42DC engines (1 or 2 AEM-7 or ACS-64s between Washington D.C. and New York City)
• 4 Amfleet II Coaches
• 1 Amfleet II Lounge
• 1 Heritage Fleet or Viewliner Dining car
• 2 Viewliner Sleepers
• 1 Viewliner Baggage Car

Station stops

State/Province	Town/City	Station	Connections
New York	New York City	Penn Station	Amtrak: Acela Express, Adirondack, Cardinal, Carolinian, Empire Service, Ethan Allen Express, Keystone Service, Lake Shore Limited, Maple Leaf, Northeast Regional, Palmetto, Pennsylvanian, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, 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: 1 2 3 A C E trains NYC Transit buses: M4, M7, M20, M34 / M34A Select Bus Service, Q32
New Jersey	Newark	Newark Penn Station	Amtrak: Acela Express, Cardinal, Carolinian, Keystone Service, Northeast Regional, Palmetto, Pennsylvanian, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Vermonter NJ Transit: Newark City Subway, Newark Light Rail, North Jersey Coast Line, Northeast Corridor Line, Raritan Valley Line, 5, 21, 62, 67, 70, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78, 79, 308, 319, 361, 375, 378 PATH: NWK-WTC
	Trenton	Trenton Rail Station	Amtrak: Acela Express, Cardinal, Carolinian, Keystone Service, Northeast Regional, Palmetto, Pennsylvanian, Silver Star, Silver Meteor, Vermonter NJ Transit: Northeast Corridor Line, River Line, 409, 418, 600, 601, 604, 606, 608, 609, 611, 619 SEPTA Regional Rail: Trenton Line SEPTA Suburban Transit Division: 127
Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	30th Street Station	Amtrak: Acela Express, Cardinal, Carolinian, Keystone Service, Northeast Regional, Palmetto, Pennsylvanian, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Vermonter NJ Transit: Atlantic City Line SEPTA City Transit Division: Market-Frankford Line, Route 10, Route 11, Route 13, Route 34, Route 36, 9, 10, 11, 13, 30, 31, 34, 36, 44, 62, 121, 124, 125, 316 SEPTA Regional Rail: Airport Line, Warminster Line, Wilmington/Newark Line, West Trenton Line, Media/Elwyn Line, Lansdale/Doylestown Line, Paoli/Thorndale Line, Manayunk/Norristown Line, Cynwyd Line, Trenton Line, Chestnut Hill East Line, Chestnut Hill West Line, Fox Chase Line
Delaware	Wilmington	Wilmington Station	Amtrak: Acela Express, Cardinal, Carolinian, Northeast Regional, Palmetto, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Vermonter DART First State: 2, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21, 28, 32, 301 SEPTA Regional Rail: Wilmington/Newark Line
Maryland	Baltimore	Baltimore Penn Station	Amtrak: Acela Express, Cardinal, Carolinian, Northeast Regional, Palmetto, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Vermonter MARC Train: Penn Line MTA Maryland: Light Rail, 3, 11, 61, 64
District of Columbia	Washington	Washington Union Station	Amtrak: Acela Express, Capitol Limited, Cardinal, Carolinian, Northeast Regional, Palmetto, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Vermonter, Thruway Motorcoach to Charlottesville, Virginia MARC Train: Brunswick Line, Camden Line, Penn Line VRE: Manassas Line, Fredericksburg Line Metro: Red Line Metrobus: D3, D6, D8, X1, X2, X8, X9, 80, 96, 97 DC Circulator: Georgetown, Navy Yard MTA Maryland: 903, 922 Loudoun County Transit: Loudoun County PRTC: Dale City
Virginia	Alexandria	Alexandria Union Station	Amtrak: Cardinal, Carolinian, Northeast Regional, Silver Meteor, Silver Star VRE: Fredericksburg Line, Manassas Line Metro: Blue Line, Yellow Line
	Manassas	Manassas	Amtrak: Cardinal, Northeast Regional VRE: Manassas Line
	Culpeper	Culpeper	Amtrak: Cardinal, Northeast Regional
	Charlottesville	Charlottesville Union Station	Amtrak: Cardinal, Thruway Motorcoach to Richmond, Virginia and Washington, D.C., Northeast Regional CAT: T, 7 Greyhound Lines
	Lynchburg	Lynchburg – Kemper Street Station	Amtrak: Northeast Regional
	Danville	Danville	none
North Carolina	Greensboro	Greensboro	Amtrak: Carolinian and Piedmont GTA, PART, and Greyhound Buses
	High Point	High Point	Amtrak: Carolinian and Piedmont, Thruway Motorcoach to Winston-Salem, North Carolina
	Salisbury	Salisbury	Amtrak: Carolinian and Piedmont
	Charlotte	Charlotte	Amtrak: Carolinian and Piedmont CATS Bus Lines: 11
	Gastonia	Gastonia	none
South Carolina	Spartanburg	Spartanburg
	Greenville	Greenville
	Clemson	Clemson	CAT: Red
Georgia	Toccoa	Toccoa	none
	Gainesville	Gainesville	Red Rabbit bus: Route 1 (at Main/Martin Luther King Jr intersection)
	Atlanta	Peachtree	MARTA Bus: 110 "The Peach"
Alabama	Anniston	Anniston	none
	Birmingham	Birmingham
	Tuscaloosa	Tuscaloosa
Mississippi	Meridian	Meridian Union Station	Greyhound Lines
	Laurel	Laurel	none
	Hattiesburg	Hattiesburg
	Picayune	Picayune
Louisiana	Slidell	Slidell
	New Orleans	New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal	Amtrak: City of New Orleans, Sunset Limited RTA: Loyola Avenue Streetcar Greyhound Lines

Popular culture

• The Southern Crescent is mentioned in R.E.M.'s song "Driver 8."
• The Drover's Old Time Medicine Show released a song "Southern Crescent" on their Sunday at Prater's Creek album.
• Scott Miller's song "Amtrak Crescent" tells the story of a down-and-out man traveling the Crescent from New Orleans to New York.
• Jean Louise Finch travels from New York to Alabama on the Crescent in Go Set a Watchman.

See also

• Piedmont Crescent

Bibliography

• Schafer, Mike. "Amtrak's Atlas," Trains, June 1991.

External links

• Amtrak - Crescent
• Southern Crescent takes sentimental journey (1979)
• Timetable and consist of the Crescent, August 1950, at Streamliner Schedules.com
• Timetable and consist of the Southern Crescent, April 1971, at Streamliner Schedules.com