Don't mess with the Crescent whose schedules are very tied to the present Atlanta times. Maybe an Atlanta arrival 1 hour earlier would be OK but any earlier would kill Atlanta arrivals from NYP.
Instead for connections to / from Crescent use the Dedicated Thru way buses Gulfport - Hattiesburg or Mobile - Tuscaloosa.
As mandated by congress, the Southern Rail Commission had Amtrak prepare a report on the resumption of gulf coast service from New Orleans to Mobile Alabama and other cities to Orlando Florida. The least expensive, alternative A1, would cost $5.48 million and have 138,300 passengers, and would be an extention to the City of New Orleans train, and would connect Chicago, Memphis, and other cities to as far away as Florida. For clarity in this discussion, I will call it the Orlando Sunshine. It would travel an additional 767 miles through a metropolitan population of 7.3 million, with further connections to the Silver Meteor and Miami, and by busing to Tampa. Connection northward at Jacksonville is also possible, but with a 9 hour layover for the Silver Meteor and 15 hour for the Silver Star. The same could be accomplished with alternative C, which is a stand alone train, but with half the potential passengers and greater cost. Both have the following schedule for selected cities:
New Orleans 5:00 PM
Mobile 8:18 PM
Tallahassee 5:00 AM
Jacksonville 8:15 AM
Orlando 11:30 AM
Return trip:
Orlando 4:15 PM
Jacksonville 7:25 PM
Tallahassee 11:10 PM
Mobile 6:03 AM
New Orleans 9:30 AM
As a hub, New Orleans has poorly designed connectivity. Passengers arrive in the afternoon/evening, stay the night and depart in the morning/early afternoon. The City of New Orleans arrives at 3:32 PM, the Crescent at 7:32 PM, and the Sunset Limited at 9:40 PM. The Crescent departs at 7:00 AM, the Sunset Lmited at 9:00 AM, and the City of New Orleans at 1:45 PM. While vacationers might find an overnight stay in New Orleans enjoyable, other passengers might consider it a burden, and still others have already opted for taking a bus or plane direct to their destination.
With the proposed Orlando Sunshine, some connectivity is possible but it involves some schedule changes and/or infrastructure improvements to make the connectivity work. The Crescent leaves New York City at 2:15 PM, departs Atlanta at 8:38 AM and arrives in New Orleans at 7:32 PM, just missing the Orlando Sunshine. If infrastructure and schedule improvements could increase the average speed, Atlanta to New Orleans, from 47mph to 59 mph, the arrival in New Orleans would be 5:20 PM. Perhaps a schedule increase to 53 mph, which it can do now, and an Atlanta departure at 7:38 AM would also be acceptable. However, it should be noted that lateness at Atlanta needs to be prevented. The Orlando Sunshine would need to delay its New Orleans departure to about 5:50PM to make this work, and even lateness to 6:40 PM would still make connections with the Silver Meteor in Orlando. Thus passengers, for example, from Atlanta to Mobile and other cities, and from Birmingham to Tallahassee and further would add to both the Crescent and Orlando Sunshine total passengers and income possible.
With a 9:40 PM arrival in New Orleans, it is difficult for the Sunset Limited to make a same day eastward connection to the Orlando Sunshine, even at a revised 5:50 PM departure. Two hour earlier arrival is possible with schedule or infrastructure improvements, but due to the connection with the Texas Eagle at San Antonio, it is not known if 2 1/2 more hours, (total equal 4 1/2 hours earlier), are easily attainable, but this should be a future goal.
The westward Orlando Sunshine arrives in New Orleans at 9:30 AM missing both the Crescent departure at 7:00 AM and Sunset Limited departure at 9:00 AM. With 6:03 AM timing for Mobile being very early, it would be better to change the Orlando Sunshine schedule for a 10:00 AM or later arrival in New Orleans. On January 13 thru February 24 Amtrak is trying a 10:30 AM departure of the Sunset Limited with an on time departure at San Antonio. This would make good connectivity with the Orlando Sunshine and possibly show where infrastructure improvements are needed. Thus more passengers from Orlando, Jacksonville, and other cities will easily be able to go west or return home to Houston, San Antonio, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and other cities. This connectivity increases the usefulness and numbers for both train routes.
If the west bound Orlando Sunshine arrives in New Orleans at 10:00 AM, then the Crescent should depart later at about 11:00 AM. With one hour reduction through schedule or infrastructure improvements, the northeast bound Crescent would arrive in Atlanta at 10:35 PM and New York at 4:46 PM, which appears satisfactory, but perhaps an hour earlier would be better. Thus passengers from Florida would be able to easily go to Birmingham, Atlanta and other cities, and add to the patronage of both trains.
Let us look at another idea which would make better use of the City of New Orleans trainset and would provide the following:
When the City of New Orleans arrives in New Orleans at 3:32 PM, the Houston Rocket section would leave for Houston arriving at 11:00 PM, turn around and depart at 11:42 PM, and arrive back in New Orleans at about 9:00 AM, and depart north to Chicago at 1:45 PM. The distance New Orleans to Houston is 383 mi, which is half of that to Orlando. From this it is expected that the operating costs will be about half of that of the Orlando Sunshine. Whereas the Orlando Sunshine will require two additional short trainsets, no additional may be required for the Houston Rocket. The average speed to Houston should be increased from 42 mph to 48 mph, which it can probably do now or with some infrastructure improvement. The metro population for the Houston Rocket extension is 8.1 million, which is about the same as the Orlando Sunshine. Due to additional connectivity, Amtrak will have to figure out the number of passengers and revenue, which will also have to be redone for the Orlando Sunshine.
The new schedule for trains at New Orleans would be:
As you can see, connectivity in New Orleans is improved, but not perfect. Also there are more subjects to be talked about such as:
Bob Johnston, Gulf Coast Passenger Rail Advocates Have at Least Five Options, Dec 15, 2015
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2015/12/14-gulf-coast-meetings
Amtrak report for the Southern Rail Commission, Potential Gulf Coast Service Restoration Options, December 2015
http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5302778ee4b07a6f640874ef/t/5670735bd8af10d0d84e4965/1450210139160/Gulf+Coast+Initiative+Report+2015.pdf
Amtrak, PRIIA Section 226 Gulf Coast Service Plan Report, July 16, 2009
http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/904/671/GulfCoastServicePlanReport.pdf
Amtrak, PRIIA Section 210 Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle Performance Improvement Plan, September 2010
https://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/970/304/PRIIA-210-SunsetLtd-TexasEagle-PIP,0.pdf
Amtrak webpage with info on New Orleans
https://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=am/am2Station/Station_Page&code=NOL
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.