Passenger service
In 1898 the M&O inaugurated a through banner passenger train—The West India Flyer. It became the Pea Vine’s first significant passenger train. It handled a St. Louis to Tampa, Florida Pullman Palace car with drawing rooms and buffet connecting with the Plant System at Montgomery. At Tampa, passengers made a dockside transfer to a steamship for Havana, Cuba. This lasted for a short season. After that the mainstay passenger service schedules were local accommodation trains with coach and café parlor cars. These schedules ran between Artesia and Montgomery, Artesia and Columbus, Artesia and Tuscaloosa, and Tuscaloosa and Montgomery.

At Artesia, these trains were timed to connect with through trains on the trunk line. The branch lines also listed schedules connecting to the trains on the district’s mainline. These trains were pulled by the 4-6-0 Ten-wheel steam engines. By the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, M&O economized on passenger service by using Elector Motive-St. Louis Car Company gas-electric motor cars, numbered in the 1800 series, in place of the steam hauled trains. In the GM&O era, a luxurious motor train went into service on October 27, 1941 between Artesia and Montgomery, targeting the potential student ridership to and from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. For trains numbers 115-116, the railroad turned out its most powerful motor car number 350, a former Gulf, Mobile & Nothern (GM&N) Brill car. It would pull a refurbished heavyweight coach number 103—given the name College Club—former M&O coach number 211. The coach interior was redone in contemporary Art-Deco with a buffet counter as well as comfortable coach and lounge seats. Both cars were given an exterior color scheme of aluminum and Chinese red. This train was scheduled to connect with the Gulf Coast Rebel passenger train at Artesia. This motor train of two cars could be said to have been among the most luxurious examples of the motor train genre operated in the United States.

By 1945, GM&O had obtained 1000 horsepower Alco RS1 road-switcher diesels for trains numbers 115-116 numbered in the 1100 series with more power for longer passenger trains. On June 1, 1945, a St. Louis to Montgomery Pullman sleeping car ran on trains numbers 115-116 to and from the connection at Artesia. GM&O would also use its 270 (DL105/DL109) and 290 (PA1) series 2000 horsepower Alco passenger diesels on these trains. On January 13, 1952, a motor train again took over this schedule due to falling passenger ridership. In early 1954, the train ran only between Columbus and Montgomery with passengers bused between Columbus and Artesia. The last regularly scheduled common carrier rail passenger service ended on the Pea Vine with the last run October 19, 1954. The next day the Ray Bus Line served the route.