The Alton Railroad was the final name of the railroad linking Chicago to Alton, Illinois, St. Louis, Missouri
and Kansas City, Missouri. Its predecessor, The Chicago & Alton Railroad, was purchased by the
Baltimore & Ohio in 1931 and was controlled until 1942 when the Alton was released to the courts.
On May 31, 1947, the Alton Railroad was merged into the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad.
The line to Alton and St. Louis is now mostly part of the Union Pacific Railroad system; the line to Kansas City
is part of the Kansas City Southern Railway system. Metra's Heritage Corridor provides commuter rail
service on the old main line, now owned by the Canadian National Railway through its
Illinois Central Railroad, between Chicago and Joliet, Illinois.
The earliest ancestor to the Alton Railroad is the Alton and Sangamon Railroad, chartered February 27, 1847, in
Illinois to connect the Mississippi River town of Alton to the state capital at Springfield in Sangamon County.
The line was finished in 1852, and as the Chicago & Mississippi Railroad extended to Bloomington in 1854
and Joliet in 1855. Initially, trains ran over the completed Chicago and Rock Island Railroad to Chicago.
The Joliet and Chicago Railroad was chartered February 15, 1855, and opened in 1856, continuing north and
northeast from Joliet to downtown Chicago. It was leased by the Chicago & Mississippi providing a
continuous railroad from Alton to Chicago. In 1857 the C&M was reorganized as the St. Louis, Alton and
Chicago Railroad, and another reorganization on October 10, 1862, produced the Chicago and Alton Railroad.
The C&A chartered the Alton and St. Louis Railroad to extend the line to East St. Louis,
opened in 1864 giving it a line from Chicago to East St. Louis.
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