Crescent

The Crescent runs once a day in each direction between New York and New Orleans — 1,377 miles through twelve states and Washington, D.C., in about 32 hours. South of Washington it leaves the electric Northeast Corridor for the old Southern Railway main line: through the Virginia Piedmont, across the Carolinas overnight, to Atlanta, Birmingham and Meridian, and over Lake Pontchartrain into New Orleans, the Crescent City it is named for.

It is also the train the Southern would not give up. When Amtrak took over most of America's passenger trains on 1 May 1971, the Southern Railway stayed out and went on running the Southern Crescent itself. It was one of the last two privately run long-distance trains in the country, and the Southern handed it to Amtrak only on 1 February 1979.

Most of its riders use it for part of the way: Birmingham to New Orleans is the busiest pair on the route.

Train 19 leaves Moynihan Train Hall in New York at 14:00 behind an electric locomotive and runs down the Northeast Corridor through Newark, Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore. At Washington Union Station, reached at 18:30, diesels take over for the rest of the way.

Through the Piedmont by night

South of Alexandria the train turns onto Norfolk Southern's line through the Virginia Piedmont — Manassas, Culpeper, Charlottesville at 20:52, Lynchburg and Danville — and crosses North Carolina in the small hours by Greensboro, Salisbury and Charlotte. Spartanburg, Greenville and Clemson in South Carolina pass before dawn.

Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi by day

Day breaks around Toccoa, Georgia, and the train reaches Atlanta's Peachtree Station at 09:08. In Alabama the clocks go back an hour; Birmingham comes at 13:03, Tuscaloosa at 14:02, and Meridian, Mississippi, at 16:19. Laurel, Hattiesburg and Picayune follow, then the Pearl River into Louisiana, Slidell, the bridge across Lake Pontchartrain, and New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal at 21:12, 32 hours 12 minutes after New York.

Northbound the day turns round. Train 20 leaves New Orleans at 09:10 and crosses the lake in the morning, so Mississippi and Alabama come by day; Atlanta is just before midnight, the Carolinas are crossed overnight, and the Virginia Piedmont comes after breakfast.

The train itself

The coaches are single-deck Amfleet II cars with a café car. The sleepers are Viewliner cars, with Roomettes, Bedrooms, a Bedroom Suite and an Accessible Bedroom, and passengers in rooms have a Viewliner II dining car and Amtrak's Flexible Dining. South of Washington the train is pulled by GE P42DC or Siemens ALC-42 Charger diesels; north of it, by a Siemens ACS-64 electric.

The Crescent runs every day in each direction, all year. Southbound, train 19 leaves New York at 14:00 and reaches New Orleans at 21:12 the next day, 32 hours 12 minutes on. Northbound, train 20 leaves New Orleans at 09:10 and reaches New York the next day at 18:42, or at 17:48 on trains leaving New Orleans on a Friday or Saturday.

All times below are local. The route is on Eastern time as far as Atlanta and on Central time from Anniston, Alabama, so the clocks change by an hour on the way. The day is counted from departure. Northbound times north of Alexandria are for Sunday-to-Thursday departures; on Friday and Saturday departures the train is earlier into Washington (14:12) and New York.

Good to know:

• Not every date runs. When we searched in November 2026, the booking engine offered no Crescent from New York on Wednesday 6 January 2027, though the train ran the next day. Check your own date before planning round it.
• Richmond is a bus. An Amtrak Thruway coach links Charlottesville with Richmond's Staples Mill Road station on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
• The times move. Amtrak's timetable is generated for a single date rather than a season; the times above are from the one for 13 November 2026. South of Washington the train runs on freight railways, so leave slack for onward connections.

Times as of November 2026, from Amtrak's published timetable for 13 November 2026. Confirm before travelling on amtrak.com (opens in a new tab).

Fares on the Crescent move with demand rather than sitting on a published table. A search of Amtrak's booking engine in November 2026 for one adult, New York to New Orleans on Thursday 7 January 2027, gave Coach from $156 and private rooms from $828, the room price covering up to two adults. Business class is not offered on this train. Book early, and book direct.

Coach is a reclining seat with the café on board. A room adds a bed, an attendant and meals in the dining car; the Bedroom adds its own washroom and shower. Fares checked November 2026 at amtrak.com (opens in a new tab); US dollars, one way.

The pass that covers the Crescent is Amtrak's own USA Rail Pass: $499 for 10 segments over 30 days, in Coach only — upgrades to a Roomette or Bedroom are not available on it. A segment is one boarding and one alighting, so riding New York to New Orleans straight through uses one of the ten. The pass is valid for 120 days from purchase, each segment has to be booked through Amtrak before you board, and only Sale and Value fares can be booked on it.

For the Crescent alone it is not worth buying. Coach from New York to New Orleans sampled at $156, under a third of the pass price. It pays when this train is one leg of a bigger loop — stopping off in Charlottesville and Atlanta, say, then west on the Sunset Limited or north on the City of New Orleans — and only if you are happy to sit up for the nights on board.

Checked November 2026 against amtrak.com/usa-rail-pass (opens in a new tab).

The Crescent runs every day, so a stopover costs only a day: get off, stay the night, and take the same train on the next afternoon or evening. The places below are listed from north to south.

Three historic hotels along the line: the Georgian Terrace of 1911 by Atlanta's Fox Theatre, the Redmont of 1925 in Birmingham, and the Threefoot, Meridian's Art Deco tower of 1929, now a hotel.

Planning this trip and stuck on something, or spotted a time, fare or detail that has changed? Send us a message about Crescent. We read every one, and we update this page when something has changed.