Alton and Southern Railroad

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Alton and Southern Railroad
Reporting marks	ALS
Locale	Illinois
Dates of operation	1913–Present
Successor line	Missouri Pacific Railroad and Chicago and North Western Railway
Track gauge	4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge)

The Alton and Southern Railroad is a railroad in Illinois.

The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad and oeprates a switching railroad in the St. Louis area.

The company was formed through an August 1, 1913 merger between the Alton and Southern Railroad Company (founded in 1910), the Denverside Connecting Railroad (founded in 1910), and the Alton and Southern Railway (founded in 1911). The company was operated as a subsidiary of the Aluminum Company of America to serve the Bayer process bauxite-to-alumina refinery at Alorton, Illinois.

Alcoa sold the line to the Missouri Pacific Railroad and Chicago and North Western Railway (CNW) in 1968. In 1972, CNW's share was sold to the Cotton Belt Railway. In 1982, the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) took ownership of the Missouri Pacific share and then became full owner in 1996 with the CNW merger. The Alton and Southern is still a legally separate entity but is wholly owned by UP.