Seminole Gulf Railway's Passenger Service

Seminole Gulf Railway is a working short line headquartered in Fort Myers that acquired two former CSX Transportation lines in Southwest Florida in November 1987, running its first train out of Fort Myers on November 14 of that year. Passenger service followed in 1991, when the loss of a major freight customer pushed the railroad to introduce excursion and dinner trains; the first excursion departed on January 5, 1991, from a small platform in North Naples near Railhead Park. In 1993 passenger operations shifted to the current station near Colonial Boulevard in Fort Myers, and by the late 1990s the general excursions had been discontinued, leaving the Murder Mystery Dinner Train as the railroad's signature passenger offering. The dinner train normally runs five nights a week, year-round, rolling north from Fort Myers to a point just south of Punta Gorda and back with a five-course dinner and interactive theater; more than 80 different murder mystery productions have been staged over its history, joined by holiday trains such as the Sweetheart Express, Halloween Ghost Train, New Year's Eve Gala, and the Christmas Rail-Boat to the historic Punta Gorda Atlantic Coast Line depot.