Peter Demens' Orange Belt Railway helped improve the transporting of crops and other goods and paved the road for tourism in Pinellas. After Demens left the area, Henry Plant took control of the railway and following his death, his line merged with the Atlantic Coast Line system.
When the first rail line connected Tampa and St. Petersburg in 1910, a small depot was built in Sulphur Springs called the Gulf Coast Junction. This larger depot was constructed during the 1920s land boom. The railway continued service for decades; though, after World War II, an increasing number of Americans favored travel by car. Passenger rail service ceased to exist in Pinellas in the early 1980s.