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I have not seen the new timetable yet, but as of the 2015 timetable, the Crescent still had full dining service. I don't know if the availability of business class is worth $75 or not. When I ride the Crescent, it is always in a sleeper
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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I was just on the Crescent 2 weeks ago, NO to NYC, and they had full dining services. However, the City of New Orleans did not, had only crap food like the Cardinal--pot roast still OK, but wilting salad, and the microwavish breakfasts were bad.
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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The key to enjoying the CONO is eating in Chicago before you depart. We were OK with the continental breakfast and the lunch salad was pretty good. Forget about the nuked stuff.
Wine in the darkened SSL departing Chicago was a real treat with that city's impressive skyline.
Posts: 2397 | From: Camden, SC | Registered: Mar 2006
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Rode the Crescent Atlanta-Philadelphia departing March 30th. Full diner was there. Service (and food quality) easily surpassed that which we experienced New Year's Eve on the northbound Auto-Train.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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Business class was to premiere on the Crescent 48 hours after I rode..... no one on #20 the night I was could say for sure how such would be delivered.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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Everyone I told said the same thing: “Oh, my God! I’ve always wanted to do that!”
The thing they had always wanted to do, apparently, was travel from New York to New Orleans by train. Or cross any considerable distance by rail — distances typically flown over in the name of expedience. Old, young, man, woman, didn’t matter. They had all long nursed, but never acted on, a wish to take the slow route.
I write about liquor. Every July, in New Orleans, there is a booze convention. I’d gone every year, always by plane. Last summer, bored with the routine, I vowed to shake it up. I brought up the Amtrak website and discovered there was a line called the Crescent that followed the eastern corridor down to Washington, D.C., and then snaked through the South to New Orleans. It took 30 hours.
I had a day to spare. All that remained was to O.K. the plan with my travel companion. “Oh, my God!” she said. “I’ve always wanted to do that!” (Or words to that effect.)...train had been due at 9 p.m. We arrived in New Orleans at 2 a.m. I stumbled, nearly hallucinating from exhaustion, onto the platform and into a taxi. We told the driver our tale of woe. He was not moved. “Last night, it got in at 4.”.....Would I do it again? Maybe. My romanticism hadn’t been entirely crushed. But I’d try another line. And check beforehand who owned the tracks. And smuggle in more martinis.
Oh well, they had a new Viewliner Diner.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Gilbert, In that article Simonson mentions that he "smuggled" his martini aboard. Guess he needs to know that sleeping car passengers are allowed to have a cocktail hour in their compartment. TB PS Go to Australia when your sister is there; tell the neighbors you'll be gone for 30 days; let your niece know that you think it a good idea to stay in a hotel.
Posts: 518 | From: Maynard, MA, USA | Registered: Sep 2000
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