Amtrak Crescent Discussion

Meridian has an unused platform to the west of the present tracks. That location has room to restore 2 station tracks that would ideal for combining / splitting trains for NOL and DAL / FTW.

Jackson station has a problem in that the KCS station line toward Shreveport is west of the CNO station platform about 4 CN yard tracks.. Those CN tracks (once IC platforms ) travel over a filled in passageway from the station to the KCS platform location. Now what the KCS platform locaation state of disrepair is like is unknown. Also what kind of transportation would be available and necessary for ADA persons is also unknown.

In an ideal world we'd see a twice daily service between Ft Work and Meridien. This would allow for an overnight and daytime trip in both directions and connectivity to the City of New Orleans and Texas Eagle, maybe even the Heartland Flyer, in both directions. If Amtrak were to ever get serious about restoring the Sunset Route to Florida as an extension of the City of New Orleans, I'm sure there would be a significant amount of traffic that could be captured from DFW to the Gulf Coast/Orlando

prokowave wrote: ↑Sun Nov 20, 2022 12:57 pm In an ideal world we'd see a twice daily service between Ft Work and Meridien. This would allow for an overnight and daytime trip in both directions and connectivity to the City of New Orleans and Texas Eagle, maybe even the Heartland Flyer, in both directions. If Amtrak were to ever get serious about restoring the Sunset Route to Florida as an extension of the City of New Orleans, I'm sure there would be a significant amount of traffic that could be captured from DFW to the Gulf Coast/Orlando

Given past history, I cannot see any train getting extended out of New Orleans and onto the panhandle of Florida. It would kill what on-time performance there is. I'd rather see a separate Gulf Sunset train, Miami to New Orleans, and force an overnight layover for the Sunset Limited or any other train.

STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Sun Nov 20, 2022 3:51 pm Given past history, I cannot see any train getting extended out of New Orleans and onto the panhandle of Florida. It would kill what on-time performance there is. I'd rather see a separate Gulf Sunset train, Miami to New Orleans, and force an overnight layover for the Sunset Limited or any other train.

I think we'll have to see how the NOL-MOB service turns out. Looks like an agreement was reached to finally get it moving. I think the beauty of doing Florida as an extension of the City of New Orleans, is that the CONO is already one of the best on-time performers. Plenty of padding can be added to the schedule in NOL since Amtrak owns the tracks and has crew and maintenance bases there. Plus the CONO otherwise sits for 20+ hour in NOL before turning around, so they'd only need at most one addition trainset to extend to Florida.

Being able to offer a one-seat ride from Chicago to Florida and shaving 8-10 hours off the next best option would be pretty huge for Amtrak's network.

Even before Katrina, there were supporters who were looking to restructure "passenger rail east of New Orleans." Sunset could terminate in New Orleans and the City of New Orleans be the train that went "all the way" to Orlando/Tampa or Miami. Just has to be timed to allow some sort of good inter-connectivity. Given what's left, east of New Orleans, the City of New Orleans I think would be the better train that could help bring Midwesterners to Chicago and those on the West Coast to/from Florida (via connection with Sunset Limited). Could even do a through coach/sleeper to allow for more efficient use of the equipment. City of New Orleans would just take one extra train set. Would kinda be a mini Chicago hub. Considering all the passengers that flock to the Capitol Limited and Silver Star combo for their seasonal trek to Florida, it'd probably pay off.

The "Crescent Star" was proposed a few times - that is the Crescent train set would split at Meridian with a section heading to New Orleans (as happens every day) and then a section heading due West to Dallas or even Ft. Worth. The LD trains that "split" to serve other markets are using their assets a bit more efficiently. Overnight European sleeper trains have reprised this.

Discussion of a possible Meridian-DFW section: amtrak-crescent-section-between-meridia ... 75178.html