crescent

Crescent
Info
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
Route
Start	New York City, 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)	Standard and business 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	Fully-licensed dining car On-board café
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)	AMTRK NS CSX

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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.

History

Heyday

A decade after the Civil War, the predecessor of the Southern Railway, the Richmond and Danville Railroad Company, 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, Virginia. 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 and Southwestern Vestibuled Limited," inaugurated in January 1891 by the Richmond and Danville Railroad along the "Piedmont Air Line Route." 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." And 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 schedule expanded to include a through Pullman to New Orleans via Montgomery and Mobile, Alabama, over the rails of the Atlanta & West Point, the Western Railway of Alabama, and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. New York was brought into the schedule, via a connection 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 through service, the "Washington and Southwestern Vestibuled Limited" became a solid train of through cars between New York and New Orleans. It carried the first dining cars to operate between those two cities.

Late Southern Era

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 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.

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.

Amtrak Era

Southern Railway, a predecessor of Norfolk Southern, initially opted out of Amtrak in 1971, although 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 being the Rio Grande Zephyr, which operated until 1983. However, revenue losses forced Southern Railway to leave the passenger business and turn over operation of the train to Amtrak, on February 1, 1979, which again simplified the name to the Crescent.

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.^[1]

Tracks

The tracks used were once part of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad and Southern Railway systems, and 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
• 4 Amfleet II Coaches
• 1 Amfleet II Café
• 1 Heritage Fleet Diner
• 2 Viewliner Sleepers

Station stops

See also

• Piedmont Crescent

References

• Amtrak (October 6, 2005), Amtrak Trains to Roll Out of New Orleans on October 9. Retrieved October 6, 2005.
• Schafer, Mike; Amtrak's atlas, Trains June 1991

Notes

Referenced in REM's song Driver 8[1]

External links

• Amtrak - Crescent
• Southern Crescent takes sentimental journey
• Southern High-Speed Rail Commission