Homestead Subdivision

The Homestead Subdivision is a CSX railroad line in South Florida. Running from a junction with the South Florida Rail Corridor in Hialeah near Miami International Airport south to Homestead, the line is the southernmost trackage in CSX's system.

Homestead Subdivision
 FEC
Little River Branch
 South Florida Rail Corridor
SXH 36.7
 Hialeah
SXL 45.0
 Doral
SXH 41.1
 Oleander Junction
SXH 43.3
 Coral Gables
SXH 47.0
 South Miami
SXH 53.0
 Sterling
SXH 66.5
 Homestead
former Overseas Railroad (FEC)
to Key West
Note: Not to Scale
Homestead Seaboard station at the end of the Homestead Subdivision

The line begins just east of Miami International Airport where it branches off the state-owned South Florida Rail Corridor (CSX's former Miami Subdivision). The line heads southwest around the airport's Runway 9/27 to Oleander Junction, where the Lehigh Spur to Doral and Sweetwater branches off to the west. The Florida East Coast Railway's Little River Branch also connects to the Homestead Subdivision at Oleander Junction.[1]

From Oleander Junction, the line heads south and southwest into southern Miami-Dade County, passing through Little Havana and Kendall (where it parallels the Don Shula Expressway). The line ends just south of a wye and the abandoned Homestead Seaboard Air Line Railway Station.

The line's milepost numbers continue from the South Florida Rail Corridor, though the numbers are subtracted from 1000 for simplicity.

The southern half of the line only sees sporadic freight service. There have been proposals in the past to extend Tri-Rail commuter service down the line to Homestead but the idea has never made it past the proposal stage.[2] As of March 2019, the southernmost 12 miles of the line are classified as out of service.[3]

History

The Homestead Subdivision was originally built in 1927 as the southern extension of the Seaboard-All Florida Railway, a subsidiary of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. It was built parallel the now-abandoned southern segment of the Florida East Coast Railway that led up to the Overseas Railroad to Key West.[4] At the north end, some of the original track was realigned in 1951 to accommodate the expansion of Miami International Airport.

See also

References
  1. CSX Jacksonville Division Timetable
  2. McCaughan, Sean. "What if Tri-Rail Extended All the Way to Homestead?". Curbed Miami. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  3. "CSX Transportation, Inc.-Discontinuance of Service Exemption-in Miami-Dade County, Fla". Surface Transportation Board. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  4. Turner, Gregg (2003). A Short History of Florida Railroads. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-2421-4.
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