v t e Homestead Subdivision
Legend
Milepost FECLittle River Branch South Florida Rail Corridor Miami Intermodal Center MIA Mover SXH 36.7 Hialeah SXL 45.0 Doral SXH 41.1 Oleander Junction SXH 43.3 Coral Gables SXH 47.0 South Miami SXG 62.4 Conrad Yelvington Miami SXH 53.0 Sterling GPC Spur SXH 62.8 Redland SXH 66.5 Homestead fmr. FECKey West Extenstion
Note: Not to Scale CSX has subtracted 1000 from the milepost numbers for simplicity.

TheHomestead Subdivision is a CSX railroad line inSouth Florida. Running from a junction with theSouth Florida Rail Corridor inHialeah nearMiami International Airport south toHomestead, the line is the southernmost railroad line in thecontinental United States.^[1] The Homestead Subdivision was built in 1927 by theSeaboard Air Line Railroad.

The Homestead Subdivision begins just east ofMiami International Airport. It branches off the South Florida Rail Corridor (which primarily servesTri-Rail commuter trains) just south of the Miami Canal. From here, it quickly turns south, running along theTamiami Canal to the south side of the airport. It then turns west along the south side of the airport, paralleling Runway 9/27 before coming to Oleander Junction.

At Oleander Junction, the Homestead Subdivision turns south while theLehigh Spur continues west toDoral andSweetwater. The south end of theFlorida East Coast Railway’s Little River Branch also connects to the Homestead Subdivision at Oleander Junction.^[2]

Continuing south from Oleander Junction, the Homestead Subdivision continues south throughCoral Terrace before turning southwest throughGlenvar Heights. From Glenvar Heights southwest throughKendall, the Homestead Subdivision runs directly beside theDon Shula Expressway. Just southwest of Kendall, the line comes to a point historically known as Sterling. At Sterling Junction, theGPC Spur branches off the line and heads west to Cemex’s Krome Quarry onKrome Avenue.^[2]

Just south of Sterling Junction, the Homestead Subdivision passes theGold Coast Railroad Museum and continues southwest another eight miles before turning south intoHomestead. After enteringHomestead, the Homestead Subdivision terminates at a wye just south of theHomestead Seaboard Air Line Railway Station.^[2]

The Homestead Subdivision is used for local freight. The line's milepost numbers continue from the South Florida Rail Corridor, though the numbers have been subtracted from 1000 from their original numbering for simplicity.^[3][2]

CSX serves the Cemex Miami Cement Plant on NW 137th Ave in Doral on the Lehigh Spur. The GPC Spur servesCemex's Krome Quarry in westernMiami-Dade County as well as a Conrad Yelvington plant.^[3]

The southernmost 12 miles of the line (south of theGold Coast Railroad Museum) are currently out of service.^[4]

Homestead Subdivision
Overview
Status	Portions still operating under successor company
Owner	Seaboard Air Line Railroad
Termini	Hialeah, Florida Homestead, Florida
History
Opened	1927
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)standard gauge
Electrification	No
Signalling	None
Route map Route of the Homestead Subdivision when first built (red). The realigned segment around Miami International Airport is shown in dark red.

The Homestead Subdivision was originally built in 1927 by theSeaboard Air Line Railroad. It was a southern extension of the company'sMiami Subdivision, which had been completed a year prior. It was the second railroad line to run south of Miami after theFlorida East Coast Railway, which was extended to Homestead in the early 1900s and led to theirKey West extension. The Homestead Subdivision largely paralleled theFlorida East Coast Railway between Kendall and Homestead.^[5] The Seaboard Air Line discontinued passenger service on the Homestead Subdivision in 1929, the same year as theWall Street Crash of 1929.^[6]

When first built, the north end Homestead Subdivision ran though the middle of what is nowMiami International Airport. The Seaboard Air Line's Hialeah yard was located at the east end of the current Runway 8R/26L at the time.^[7][8] The airport was actually built as two separate air fields on either side of the tracks, withMiami Army Airfield to the south and Pan American Field (later known as the 36th Street Airport) to the north. In 1949, the Dade County Port Authority merged the two air fields, which was officially named Miami International Airport. After the fields were merged, the railroad still ran through the middle of the airport. The tracks even crossed a runway and taxiway at grade and trains needed clearance fromair traffic control to cross them.^[9] In 1951, The Dade County Port Authority paid $3 million to relocate Seaboard's yard further north and to realign the Homestead Subdivision betweenLeJeune Road and Oleander Junction to its current route on the south of the airport.^[8][5]

The Lehigh and GPC Spurs were built in 1958 to serve two large cement plants that were built just west of Miami. The Lehigh Spur served the plant built by the Lehigh Portland Cement Company and the GPC Spur another plant built by the General Portland Cement Company (GPC) atKrome Avenue andKendall Drive.^[10][11]

In 1967, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad became theSeaboard Coast Line Railroad after merging with its rival, theAtlantic Coast Line Railroad. In 1980, the Seaboard Coast Line's parent company merged with theChessie System, creating theCSX Corporation. The CSX Corporation initially operated the Chessie and Seaboard Systems separately until 1986, when they were merged intoCSX Transportation.^[5]

After the abandonment of the adjacentFlorida East Coast Railway main line throughFlorida City in 1989, the Homestead Subdivision became the southernmost railroad track in the continental United States.^[1]

In the 2000s, CSX realigned the Lehigh Spur's connection at Oleander Junction allowing for trains to run directly into the spur from the north. Trains previously had to go south of the junction and reverse into the spur.^[3]

In March 2019, CSX officially classified the southernmost 12 miles of the Homestead Subdivision as out of service.^[4]

There have been proposals in the past to extendTri-Rail commuter service down the line to Homestead. The most recent proposal was in 2023, but the idea has never made it past the proposal stage.^[12][13]

• List of CSX Transportation lines
• Miami Subdivision

• CSX Transportation lines
• Seaboard Air Line Railroad
• Rail infrastructure in Florida
• Transportation in Miami-Dade County, Florida

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