Birmingham

Birmingham station is a train station in Birmingham, Alabama. It is a service stop for Amtrak's Crescent, which provides daily service between New York City, Atlanta, and New Orleans. The current station is located on the site of another station originally built by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1960, although Amtrak did not use the building itself, which was torn down in the 2000s. History The L&N built the new station for $500,000, replacing Union Station which it had used since 1887. Union Station was also served by the Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad until the 1930s. One writer described this new station as "modern in every respect." Passenger services in L&N years Through the 1960s, these long distance Louisville & Nashville trains served the Birmingham station: Humming Bird (Cincinnati - New Orleans) Pan-American (Cincinnati - New Orleans) South Wind (Chicago - St. Petersburg and Miami) Since 1971 When Amtrak assumed control of most inter-city passenger service on May 1, 1971, its Floridian continued to use the L&N station. The Southern Railway, which had declined to join Amtrak, continued to use its own station several blocks to the northeast. On February 1, 1979, the Southern Railway conveyed its passenger service to Amtrak and the Southern Crescent (shortened to Crescent) began serving the ex-L&N station as well. Amtrak discontinued the Floridian in October, 1979 but the Crescent has operated uninterrupted ever since. Between 1989 and 1995 Alabama funded a Mobile, Alabama section of the Crescent named the Gulf Breeze.