In 2020, the Canadian National let it be known that they wanted to rid themselves of a bunch of lines around Sault Ste Marie, and the LT&L and Watco started expressing interest in taking them over. But memories of the bidding war over the Great Lakes Central were still fresh, so instead of a bidding war the two railroads got together and jointly made an offer (with the intent that the Canadian trackage – trackage that used to be owned by the Algoma Central’s railway, but which was hot potatoed to the Wisconsin Central when the Algoma Central’s head office decided it was not profitable enough – would go to the LT&L while the American trackage would go to Watco.
This (fairly elaborate) deal closed in early 2021, but because the Algoma Central was still (obviously) a going concern the new railroad couldn’t just reuse the old name. So the next best thing; since CN kept the northernmost 50 miles of track (from Oba to Hearst) that meant that the southern section should be called the Algoma Southern.
A quick search for motive power (a pair of – sigh – class DL41s from Ozark Mountain Railcar and 3 DL25s that the DLP had recently purchased from the Great Western) produced enough power for the currently minimal amount of freight coming off the railway and an ILW/Portland Shops experimental engine was picked up to try to restart the stopping train (between Oba & Sault Ste Marie) that had been discontinued in 2015, and the railway was back in business as a (nominally) independent line.
In 2022, CN decided that keeping the Oba to Hearst section of the railway wasn’t such a good idea after all, so sold it to the Algoma Southern (restoring the complete historical Algoma Central, but not the name.)
In 2023, the DL41s were swapped to the BAR for a pair of ILW’s eco-644 locomotives, which was joined by another pair that was displaced from the I&M by the ongoing CTRC electrification.
In 2024, two of the old iron mines around Wawa reopened, so the ALSO rebuilt – and electrified – the (lifted in 1999) branch from Hawk Junction (initially to Wawa, but the line was (re)extended to Michipicoten Harbour in 2025 when a third mine reopened and started shipping to mills near Chicago in the USA.)
The Michipicoten Harbour extension also saw a short branch laid to the town of Mishibikwadinaang (in the Mishibikwadinaang first nation; part of the line to Michipicoten Harbour went through Mishibikwadinaang territory and the ACR promised to provide at least 10 years of passenger service to Mishibikwadinaang town as part of the agreement. This passenger service (Mishibikwadinaang/Wawa/Hawk Junction) is provided by a single (rebuilt with Silverliner electrical systems) class 10P combination car.