Passenger Trains > Crescent discontinuing some service?

I heard a rumor from a family member that the Crescent would, "No longer be going from Atlanta to Birmingham." This sounds totally wrong to me, but I just have to confirm that it is wrong.

I just checked a reservation on April 14, 2009, from Atlanta to Birmingham and it listed the Crescent as the train.

Some dates in Jan and Feb, train will not operate south of Atlanta, account track work.

Thanks for clearing this up. I thought it was wrong, or I would have heard something about it on here.

Historically, ridership south of Atlanta has been much lower than ridership north of Atlanta. When there is an operational glitch, Amtrak hasn't hesitated to terminate the southbound in Atlanta and turn the equipment for the evening departure north.

Over the years there have been reports that Amtrak was planning to drop NO-ATL altogether, but it has never happened and I doubt it ever will... although a case can be made that the Southeast would be better served by an ATL-NY day train, similar to the Palmetto.

I would have to disagree on a day train from the Northeast to Atlanta. Perhaps as a second train to compliment the Crescent - fine. But the current Crescent's schedule from NY to Atlanta is the ideal "hotel on wheels" - board the train mid afternoon to evening, sleep overnight, and arrive the next morning in Atlanta or points north of Atlanta. But Atlanta is a huge destination by those destinations not covered by the day train of the Carolinian. Some portions of the Crescent is covered by the Carolinian. Creating such a day train would just eat up precious day-time travel. This is a similar dilemma or rather debate going on with the Vermonter. Would the Vermonter be better served by a train that operates overnight between Brattleboro, VT and NYP, rather than wasting an entire day travelling by train to get from Essex Junction/Burlington to NYP or White River Junction to NYP etc. And some people are going the entire length - northern Vermont to Washington DC.

There was also discussion of the Crescent operating tri-weekly south of Atlanta, continuing on from New Orleans to San Antonio (which I think would be a huge mistake as a single level train), or splitting the train at Meridian and sending half the train west to Fort Worth/Dallas, Texas. The later was dubbed the "Crescent Star" under an M&E objective that never got off the ground. The proposed Crescent Star may actually have some merit. I don't really believe in a tri-weekly train. It's just a hassle to try and book travel on. Booking travel on the tri-weekly Canadian trains is a pain in the neck! I can't tell you how many lost opportunities I've had with a potential booking on the Canadian.

Yes, the day-or-night debate has been going on since the 1970s. Some people like it the way it is, others think that Southern artificially influenced the travel pattern by downgrading 5 & 6 relative to 1 & 2 in the early 1970s -- to keep 1 & 2 viable as a New Orleans - NY train, with the intention of discontinuing 5 & 6 as soon as possible.

VDOT may eventually run an afternoon or evening Charlottesville-Washington train.

Lets just hope that what ever train Virginia DOT decides to operate, it doesn't interfere too much with the Crescent's schedule, whereby it pulls potential passenger off the Crescent by the new train running too close together to the Crescent. The two trains should offer passengers options by traveling at different time of the day etc.