Southerner 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 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.
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. 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. The train began using rebuilt
Heritage Fleet equipment in 1981. 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). 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. 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. 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 use exclusively by sleeping car passengers.
Proposed expansion 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 2000s, with the route supposed to be up and running by 2002. The plan fell through when Amtrak abandoned the NGS. 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. This merger was approved on March 15, 2023, and officially went into effect on April 14, 2023, allowing this proposal to move forward. In June 2023, Amtrak applied for funding to begin the project to extend service from Mississippi to Texas along the
I-20 corridor.
Federal lawsuit In July 2024, the
United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against
Norfolk Southern Railway, alleging that they did not give priority to Amtrak's
Crescent on about 1,140 miles of Norfolk Southern-owned tracks as required by federal law. According to the lawsuit and audits conducted by Amtrak, about one out of every four southbound
Crescent services arrived at their destination
on-time in 2023. A spokesman for Norfolk Southern said that delays on the route had been reduced in recent months and that they were "committed to complying with the law, working together, and honoring our commitments." ==Route==