The Tampa Southern Railroad was a subsidiary of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL) originally running from Uceta Yard in Tampa south to Palmetto, Bradenton, and Sarasota with a later extension southeast to Fort Ogden in the Peace River valley built shortly after.

The Tampa Southern's crews began work soon after incorporation and the company's leadership projected that trains could be running by the start of 1918.

[12] The railroad reached Bradenton and used it as its terminus, carrying through Pullman sleepers from connecting Atlantic Coast Line trains.

Bradenton's passenger depot (which still stands today and serves as a medical clinic) was built just south of the river.

In 1928, a spur to the Payne Terminal at Hog Creek was built just north of the Sarasota passenger depot (which was located at Main Street and School Avenue).

[18] With optimism for the company's petition to the Interstate Commerce Commission,[19] in 1925 surveyors were plotting a line beyond Sarasota to connect with Florida's east coast.

Once out of Sarasota, the line turned southeast passing through Utopia before crossing the Myakka River and continuing through Honore and Sidell.

The extension would initially serve a pair of passenger trains from Tampa Union Station to Fort Myers and Naples that included through Pullman coaches from the Dixie Limited and the Palmetto.

[21] Most of the Fort Ogden extension was removed by 1949 since it did not generate the freight traffic the Atlantic Coast Line had hoped for.

A control point on the line between State Road 60 and Yeoman Yard is named "TS," a reference to the Tampa Southern.

The main Tampa Southern Railroad tracks end near the Tropicana Plant in Bradenton; the Palmetto Subdivision continues south from here a short distance to Oneco along the former Seaboard line.

In Oneco, it connects with Seminole Gulf Railway, who operates the remaining Seaboard tracks south through Sarasota.

Seminole Gulf also operates a discontinuous segment of the Tampa Southern Railroad just east of Downtown Sarasota.