the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Coast Line) until 1971 ran a local train (the last passenger train for the region north of St. Petersburg and west of Dade City) through those towns from Jacksonville and Gainesville, bound for St. Petersburg. Prior to the 1967 merger for the SCL that service had been the western branch of the ACL's Champion from New York City. Until 1968 the SCL ran its Sunland from Washington, DC and Portsmouth, VA to Tampa. The SAL Tarpon Springs branch line from Tarpon Junction 14 miles west of Tampa to Elfers and thence to Newport Richey to New Port Richey was lost its passenger service and became listed as freight only between 1932 and 1938. The freight branch was truncated to Elfers in 1943. The tracks from Elfers and Chemical (an industrial area in the extreme southwest part of the county along the Anclote River west of Holiday) to Tarpon Springs were removed in the late 1980s, leaving the western half of the county without freight rail service. Major roads Interstate 75 runs north and south across the eastern part of the county. Once a major connecting point with Tampa, I-75 has been made obsolete for western residents of the county by the Suncoast Parkway. Suncoast Parkway enters the county in the south halfway between Gunn Highway and US 41, and ends in the far northern part of the county at County Line Road (Exit 37), The Suncoast Parkway is a recently constructed toll road that connects Pasco County with Hillsborough County, where it becomes the Veterans Expressway and heads directly into Tampa International Airport before reaching Interstate 275. SR 589 has four Pasco County exits: SR 54 (Exit 19), Ridge Road (Exit 25), SR 52 (Exit 27), and County Line Road (Exit 37). U.S. Route 19 is a major commercial center running beside to the Gulf of Mexico on the western edge of the county, and used as a primary connecting route to cities down the west coast of Florida, including Tarpon Springs, Dunedin, Clearwater, and St. Petersburg to the south, as well as Spring Hill, Weeki Wachee, Homosassa and Crystal River to the north. Alternate 19 is a former section of US 19 that runs closer to the Gulf of Mexico in Pinellas and southern Pasco County than US 19. U.S. Route 41 (Land o' Lakes Boulevard) is the main south-to-north U.S. Highway