An Amtrak Crescent day trip to Birmingham is possible because the Crescent’s schedule offers several daytrip offerings depending on where you are located along its long-distance route.
One offering is a roundtrip experience between Atlanta and Birmingham, Ala. The trip starts off at Atlanta’s Peachtree Station at 1688 Peachtree Road Northwest in the city’s Brookwood neighborhood. Originally built for the Southern Railway, today’s Peachtree Station is Atlanta’s only passenger stop, and the Crescent is the only train serving the station. When on schedule, westbound Crescent No. 19 departs from Atlanta at 9:08 a.m. local time.
Amtrak’s Crescent traces the same route as the Southern Railway’s flagship passenger train of the same name. Traveling on Norfolk Southern owned tracks today, the Crescent departs Atlanta and passes through the towns of Mableton, Douglasville, and Winston, on a predominantly westward orientation toward the Alabama-Georgia line. Atlanta is the western-most station stop for the Crescent today and after leaving Atlanta, the train will not stop again until reaching Anniston, Ala. Before reaching Anniston and shortly after crossing into Alabama, the Crescent briefly enters the Talladega National Forest, a 400,000-acre U.S. National Forest.
Anniston, the Crescent’s only stop between Atlanta and Birmingham, is also of Southern Railway lineage and dates to mid-1920s. When on schedule, the train is scheduled to stop here at 10:30 a.m. local time, about an hour and a half after leaving Atlanta. Anniston’s station was renovated in the early-to-mid 2000s using federal transportation dollars. The city owns the building today. After leaving Anniston in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Crescent continues west and soon passes the southeast perimeter of the Anniston Army Depot, a major U.S. Army installation used for repairing combat vehicles and chemical weapons storage. Its campus includes more than 15,000 acres of woodlands and about 3.5 million square feet of maintenance and production buildings. The Crescent continues into the town of Lincoln, crossing the Coosa River into Riverside, before loosely following Interstate 20 into Birmingham.
When on schedule, the Crescent arrives in downtown Birmingham at 12:45 p.m. local time. Today’s Birmingham Intermodal Facility is located at 1801 Morris Avenue. Amtrak moved into the new Birmingham station in early 2018. Contractors started building today’s $32 million station in late 2013. The Crescent is the only passenger train serving Birmingham. After de-training, passengers can explore downtown Birmingham on foot, visiting the city’s Railroad Park across the tracks and to the southwest of the station. The park is the revitalization of former industrial properties that helped create a 19-acre greenspace.
For sports fans, the city’s Regions Field, home to minor league baseball team Birmingham Barons, is located nearby. Other area attractions within walking distance of the train station include the McWane Science Center, a great family activity for children, and the city’s Lyric Theatre, a performing arts venue in downtown. Several local restaurants and bars are also within walking distance of the station, providing different options for the approximate four-hour layover. When on time, the eastbound Crescent No. 20 is scheduled to arrive in Birmingham at 5:15 p.m. local time and will return to Atlanta nearly six hours later at 11:00 p.m. local time.
Tips & Recommendations:
• The Crescent is not a daily train currently and has been on an abbreviated schedule since the COVID-19 pandemic. Its eastbound segment, No. 20 serves Birmingham on Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday, and the westbound segment No. 19, serves the city on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, meaning a daytrip getaway is currently only available on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
• You may want to consider rescheduling your trip on the Crescent if the westbound No. 19 is more than two hours behind schedule, as this will result in a shorter than expected layover.Amtrak Crescent daytrip to Birmingham, Alabama
