Crescent (train)

Crescent
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 Southern Crescent and other names beginning in 1891
Average ridership	833 daily 304,086 total (FY11)
Route
Start	New York, NY
End	New Orleans, LA
Distance travelled	1,377 mi (2,216 km)
Average journey time	30 hours
Service frequency	Daily each way
Train number(s)	19, 20
On-board services
Class(es)	Coach and First 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
Gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Electrification	Only between New York City and Washington DC
Track owner(s)	AMTK NS CSX
Route map Legend 0 New York City (subway) New York/New Jersey border North River Tunnels 10 mi (16 km) Newark (PATH) 58 mi (93 km) Trenton (River Line) New Jersey/Pennsylvania border 91 mi (146 km) Philadelphia (SEPTA) Pennsylvania/Delaware border 116 mi (187 km) Wilmington Delaware/Maryland border 185 mi (298 km) Baltimore (Light Rail) Maryland/District of Columbia border 225 mi (362 km) Washington, DC (Metrorail) District of Columbia/Virginia 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 Virginia/North Carolina border 509 mi (819 km) Greensboro 524 mi (843 km) High Point 559 mi (900 km) Salisbury 601 mi (967 km) Charlotte 623 mi (1,003 km) Gastonia North Carolina/South Carolina border 678 mi (1,091 km) Spartanburg 709 mi (1,141 km) Greenville 739 mi (1,189 km) Clemson South Carolina/Georgia border 773 mi (1,244 km) Toccoa 810 mi (1,300 km) Gainesville 859 mi (1,382 km) Atlanta Georgia/Alabama border 959 mi (1,543 km) Anniston 1,023 mi (1,646 km) Birmingham 1,078 mi (1,735 km) Tuscaloosa Alabama/Mississippi border 1,175 mi (1,891 km) Meridian 1,231 mi (1,981 km) Laurel 1,260 mi (2,030 km) Hattiesburg 1,324 mi (2,131 km) Picayune Mississippi/Louisiana border 1,342 mi (2,160 km) Slidell 1,377 mi (2,216 km) New Orleans

The Crescent is a passenger train operated by Amtrak in the eastern part of the United States. It runs 1,377 miles (2,216 km) daily from Pennsylvania Station in New York City to New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal in New Orleans, Louisiana as train 19 and returns, on the same route, as train 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 over 300,000 passengers, a 1.8% increase over FY2010. The train had a total revenue of $30,023,636 during FY2011, an increase of 4.6% over FY2010.

History

19th century

A decade after the Civil War, the predecessor of the Southern Railway, the Richmond and Danville Railroad established the "Piedmont Air Line Route." This connected the Northeastern US with Atlanta and New Orleans both via Richmond and via 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.

Today's Crescent is the lineal descendant of the Washington & Southwestern Vestibuled Limited, inaugurated on January 4, 1891, by the Richmond and Danville. This Washington-Atlanta train was soon nicknamed the Vestibule because it was the first all-year train with vestibuled equipment operating in the South.

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 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-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 was brought into the schedule via a connection in Washington with the Pennsylvania Railroad's Congressional Limited. Scheduled time for the New York-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 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's successor, Southern Railway, came into existence 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 new club cars and observation cars.

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 train. However, plans failed to materialize leaving that distinction to the Sunset Limited in the Amtrak era.

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

By the mid-20th-century, the Crescent Limited came into its own. It was fully dieselized immediately after World War II with General Motors' (Electromotive Division) EMD E-8 locomotives and, ultimately with their FP-7 cab and booster units, in multiple unit sets of four to five (total 6,000 – 7,500 h.p.). Thus powered, the Crescent reliably traveled between New Orleans and New York on a 24-hour schedule. This guaranteed that northbound, Sunset Route (Los Angeles – New Orleans) arriving passengers into New Orleans would have afternoon arrivals into and departures from Atlanta, and evening departures from Charlotte, finally achieving morning arrivals into New York City, early enough for a full business day.

Northbound, the Crescent carried coaches between New Orleans and Charlotte, North Carolina, arriving just after lunchtime in Atlanta, and into Charlotte by the early evening. The train then became a true, all-Pullman, "Limited", carrying sleepers only and making few, limited stops only to discharge passengers. No passengers were boarded locally from any point north of Charlotte for arrival into any points south of Washington, D.C. Washington-bound passengers arrived there about 4:00 a.m. and were allowed to remain in their uncoupled sleeping cars until 8:00 a.m. This same procedure was true for the train's other major northward destinations, if the trains's arrival was earlier than 8:00 a.m.

Coaches, mail and express were added northbound (as well as southbound, from New York) at Washington, as the Pennsylvania Railroad (which took over there) never allowed any of the "name trains" from the South that used its tracks north of Washington to reach New York or Boston to exist as a separate train in a separate time slot north of Washington. So while cars of the Crescent traveled between New York and Washington, the train in the strictest sense did not. The Pennsylvania always argued this made the most efficient use of the limited number of track slot allocations between its major northeast destinations.

Southbound, early evening departures from Washington (which had left New York in mid-afternoon) ran as an all-Pullman limited from Washington, and arrived the next morning in Atlanta in time for a full business day there as well. Even though the train carried coaches between Atlanta and New Orleans southbound, it arrived in the early evening in the Crescent City in time to connect with the originating westbound Sunset Limited, destined for Texas and California. In mid-century, through sleepers were offered between these two trains, creating for a time, if not a single transcontinental train route, a transcontinental Pullman service, in which a passenger's sleeping accommodation would travel with them from New York City all the way to Los Angeles.

Late 20th century

A Southern Crescent 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, DC'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.

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. By then, the Crescent was a coach-only train sustained by two storage mail cars. Eventually, it was run combined with the Pan-American south of Montgomery. 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.

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. It simplified the name to the Crescent.

21st century

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 as an interim measure, as 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 its present-day form, the southbound Crescent leaves New York in mid-afternoon and Washington DC 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. In the northbound direction, the train leaves New Orleans at breakfast time and arrives New York early the following afternoon.

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.

Tracks Used by the Crescent Service

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:

• See Northeast Corridor for the ex-PRR lines north of Washington, DC, now owned by Amtrak
• Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, Washington to Alexandria, Virginia, now CSX
• Virginia Midland Railway (ex-Southern Railway), Alexandria to Danville, Virginia, now NS
• Piedmont Air-Line Railway (ex-Southern Railway), Danville to Greensboro, North Carolina, now NS
• North Carolina Railroad (ex-Southern Railway), Greensboro to Charlotte, North Carolina, now NS
• Atlanta and Charlotte Air-Line Railway (ex-Southern Railway), Charlotte to Atlanta, Georgia, now NS
• Georgia Pacific Railway (ex-Southern Railway), Atlanta to Birmingham, Alabama, now NS
• Louisville and Nashville Railroad, station and adjacent tracks in Birmingham, now CSX
• Alabama Great Southern Railroad (ex-Southern Railway), Birmingham to Meridian, Mississippi, now NS
• New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad (ex-Southern Railway), Meridian to New Orleans, Louisiana, now NS

Consist

A usual consist on the Crescent is as follows:

• 2 P42DC engines (1 AEM-7 or HHP-8 between Washington D.C. and New York City)
• 1 Heritage Fleet Baggage Car
• 2 Viewliner Sleepers
• 1 Heritage Fleet Diner
• 1 Amfleet II Café
• 4 Amfleet II Coaches

During the winter months this consist is reversed.

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 Metro: Red Line Metrobus: Loudoun, OmniRid VRE: Manassas Line, Fredericksburg Line
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	Amtrak: Northeast Regional
	Danville	Danville	none
North Carolina	Greensboro	Greensboro	Amtrak: Carolinian and Piedmont
	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
	Atlanta	Brookwood	MARTA Bus: 110 "The Peach"
Alabama	Anniston	Anniston	none
	Birmingham	Birmingham
	Tuscaloosa	Tuscaloosa
Mississippi	Meridian	Meridian
	Laurel	Laurel
	Hattiesburg	Hattiesburg
	Picayune	Picayune
Louisiana	Slidell	Slidell
	New Orleans	New Orleans	Amtrak: City of New Orleans, Sunset Limited

Popular culture

• The Southern Crescent is referenced 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.

See also

• Piedmont Crescent

External links

• Amtrak - Crescent
• Southern Crescent takes sentimental journey
• Southern High-Speed Rail Commission
• Timetable and consist of the Crescent, August 1950, at Streamliner Schedules
• Timetable and consist of the Southern Crescent, April 1971, at Streamliner Schedules

Bibliography

• Schafer, Mike; Amtrak's atlas, Trains June 1991