Amtrak's Crescent timetable
by the National Railroad Passenger Corporation
Sometimes I feel old, old. Last week, for example, I rode Amtrak from Atlanta to New Orleans and back, and every triumph and every setback called up a memory from the distant past. "Distant" meaning the 1960s; that will give you some idea.
American railroad timetables always represented the defeat of crude fact by sky-blue hope, I guess. This one for the Crescent is no doubt pretty average. Amtrak took over the Southern's banner route a good many years ago; the Southern Crescent followed an appropriately shaped trajectory from New Orleans to Washington by way of Atlanta (connection to New York). The old-timers say it was a fine service. Amtrak's Crescent now plies daily between Penn Station in New York and the Union Terminal in New Orleans, Union because now it unites three trains a day and a barnful of Greyhound buses. The train, consisting of coach, sleeping, lounge, dining, baggage and other service cars, leaves New York at 3 in the afternoon, reaches Atlanta at 9 the next morning, and makes its way to New Orleans at 8 that evening. The return trip begins at 7:20 a.m. and ends at 2 the next afternoon.
If only.
The Amtrak service has a lot of good points. Cars are clean (and full!). They operate with ample crew. The seats give you plenty of legroom, and the aisles are wide enough for human beings to walk. The view from the window, if it's no better than in the good ol' days, is no worse either. The dining car has a real kitchen and real cooks and waiters, and strong coffee still comes in those darling "hottles" that don't spill on the tablecloth. The engineer doesn't break in on your conversation to point out the Tallapoosa River or the martial trackside exhibits at Anniston. On the Atlanta to Washington leg, breakfasters get to see one of the prettiest parts of our country (Charlottesville to Alexandria, Virginia) through the diner windows. And the fare is really, really cheap.
What's more, departures from some major waypoints take place on time. Our train left Atlanta at 9:18 to the minute, and on the return trip we were rolling at 7:20, just as advertised. That makes everybody feel good.
The feeling doesn't last, though. Enigmatic halts in Mississippi and Alabama set us back half an hour at a time, and the track was in such a condition that we couldn't make it up, ever. We were a solid hour late reaching New Orleans and an hour and a half late getting to Atlanta.
Many people enjoy traveling by train; Amtrak carries heavy loads of passengers, and folks board and detrain at every stop. You get a safe, inexpensive, sort of humane way to cover great distances, and if you have a nostalgic, poetic soul there is plenty to say about the romance of getting there. A more realistic timetable would be good, though. It would just be a matter of adding a line:
Siding near Tuscaloosa, central time zone, arrive 12:50 pm, depart 1:30 pm
By the way, let's hear no comparisons to European rail travel. If you laid the Crescent's route over a map, it would extend from Paris to Riga, Latvia; you'd be in for an ordeal and no mistake, two or three changes of train and the same number of customs checks. Once on the Crescent, you stay on the Crescent even though your journey occupies 13 hours, and wherever it takes you you'll find someone there who speaks English.
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Amtrak's Crescent timetable