The Sarasota Subdivision was one of the first major expansions of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad network in Florida.

The railroad would be used by cadets and faculty of the Kentucky Military Institute's Venice campus for winter classes from 1933 to 1970.

[5] Another major customer on the line would be the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which was headquartered in Sarasota from 1927 to 1959 and then in Venice from 1959 to 1990.

[2] By 1925, at the height of the Florida land boom of the 1920s, Seaboard considered extending the line further south through Englewood along Lemon Bay to Placida to intercept with their Boca Grande Subdivision (the former Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway).

The Seaboard's Valrico Cutoff, which was built in 1925 and crossed the Sarasota Subdivision at Durant, was then used to access the line and provided a slightly shorter route to Tampa.

The Silver Meteor offered through coaches and sleepers (no transfer needed) from New York City on this section.

[7] Additionally, the SAL's swing bridge over the Manatee River was also removed in the wake of the merger in an effort to consolidate the company's operation on to a single bridge crossing (which also resulted in the removal of track between Palmetto Junction and Bradenton Junction).

The Seaboard Coast Line then designated the remaining track north of the Manatee River as the Parrish Subdivision, and track south of the river became part of the Palmetto Subdivision (which also included the former Atlantic Coast Line route).

[10] In 1980, the Seaboard Coast Line's parent company merged with the Chessie System, creating the CSX Corporation.

The remaining line from Parrish to Willow and the abandoned right of way from there to just north of Durant is also significant in Tampa aviation.