Wildwood station

Wildwood station is a bus station, and former train station, in Wildwood, Florida. It serves Amtrak's Thruway Motorcoach bus system and formerly served trains for Amtrak and other rail companies. The station is located on 601 North Main Street (US 301) in Wildwood, Florida. Along with the northern terminus of Florida's Turnpike, the station gave Wildwood a reason to refer to itself as "The Crossroads of Florida."

Wildwood, FL
Location	601 North Main Street Wildwood, FL, 34785
Coordinates	28.86553°N 82.03963°W / 28.86553; -82.03963
Owned by	CSX
Line(s)	Thruway Motorcoach service to the Silver Meteor and Silver Star
History
Opened	1947
Closed	2004
Former services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station Winter Haven toward Miami Floridian Ocala toward Chicago Dade City toward Miami Palmetto (2002–2004) Ocala toward New York Preceding station Seaboard Air Line Railroad Following station Coleman toward Tampa or Miami Main Line Ocala toward Richmond Terminus Orlando Subdivision Leesburg toward Lake Charm

The station was built in 1947 by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL), and is located on what is today CSX's S-Line, which runs along the west side of the building. This segment of the S-Line is officially named the Wildwood Subdivision. The station served SAL's Orange Blossom Special, Palmland, Silver Meteor, and Silver Star. It was after this location that the SAL main routes split: the main sections of Palmland, Sunland, Silver Meteor and Silver Star went to the SAL's Miami station; a southeastern branch to Miami. Secondary sections of the Silver Meteor and Silver Star went on a southwestern branch to Tampa, the SAL's Clearwater and St. Petersburg. Sections of the Palmland and Sunland went to Tampa.[1]

It is also the western terminus of an inactive SAL spur that once ran to cities such as Leesburg and Tavares. This spur is now owned by the Florida Midland Railroad, and only runs as far east as Orange Home along County Road 44A, where it served as home for some abandoned freight cars until the first decade of the 21st Century.

In 1967, after the merger of Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL) and the SAL into the new Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, the Florida Special, Palmland, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Sunland and Tidewater made stops at the station from 1968 to 1971. On May 1, 1971, Amtrak assumed SCL passenger operations, but opted to not continue the Palmland, Sunland and Tidewater.[2]

In 1971 most passenger service in the United States was transferred to Amtrak; and Silver Meteor made a stop in Wildwood station.[3] By summer, 1973 Amtrak added the Silver Star to stop at the station.[4] The Palmetto was rerouted to the CSX S-Line in 1979, until it was truncated to Savannah, Georgia on November 1, 2004, prompting Amtrak to revive Silver Star service to Tampa along the same line shared by the current Silver Meteor, and part of the suspended Sunset Limited. Today, the station operates as a CSX maintenance yard, and by Amtrak's Thruway Motorcoach bus service between Jacksonville and Lakeland. The actual station building remains, but the platform was demolished and a new double track was built over it.