All Aboard!!

If you are from one of the larger cities up north, taking a train on a regular basis is not a new thing. In Sarasota however, it is likely that you have nerver seen a passenger train in Sarasota! This has not always been the case. When I was a kid and visitors were expected, they usually came by train. You have most likely had a meal or visited a professional in locations that used to be Sarasota’s train stations! So here’s a little history.

The very first passenger train roared into Sarasota in 1924 and by 1928, tracks had been laid near Fruitville Road and Payne Terminal on Sarasota Bay to serve the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus Winter quarters. The Seaboard Air Line Railway was the first with tracks along Lemon Avenue and a station at Main Street where Mattison’s City Grill is today. The Atlantic Coastline Rail Way opened in 1925 at the eastern end of Main Street where the Kane Building is today. 

The yearly arrival and departure of the Ringling trains was one of the highlights for all Sarasotans! I was an Altar Boy and along with Monsignor Elsander, the pastor of St. Martha’s Church, we got to bless the train before the circus went on its national tour. It was a well attended event!

As a youngster, I traveled a few times by railroad with my parents and my most vivid memory is the dining car. Train travel was once the elegant way to get from place to place across the U.S., boasting opulent interiors, plush seats, porters for your every need and gleaming dining cars. The dining car was a place for passengers to relax and enjoy a delicious meal among good company. I remember the beautifully set tables with white linen clothes and napkins and all the fashionably dressed adults enjoying champagne. There were also rail cars with games and sing-alongs but I was too young to enjoy the lounge car. Oh well!

Sadly, fewer and fewer travelers heeded the “All Aboard” call due to air travel and in 1967, the two railways that served Sarasota County merged and became the Seaboard Coast Line railroad. By 1971, passenger service was discontinued. However, the train continued to transport the circus performers, animals and equipment to their winter home in Venice until 1992.

Sarasota County bought the old rail corridor in 2004 in partnership with The Trust for Public Land, calling it “The Legacy Trail”, which opened in 2008. It is a beautiful stretch from south of Clark Road to Center Road in Venice and is enjoyed by 250,000 walkers, runners and bikers every year. In 2017, Sarasota County bought nearly a mile of railroad corridor that would extend the trail north 1.7 miles to Ashton Road and in November of 2018, 70.6 percent of voters approved a referendum which authorized the county to issue $65 million in bonds to pay to extend the trail north to Payne Park in downtown Sarasota.

It’s a little sad that most of us don’t travel by train any longer. There's something old-school and charming about riding trains. Between the food car, the conductors, and the world flying by outside your window, there's a nostalgic appeal to train travel. Trains are one of my really happy memories about growing up in Sarasota!