Rapid Rail project gaining steam - Birmingham Business Journal:

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Three weeks after the statr reversed its position andreleased $120,000 to pay delinqueny membership dues to the , will debate allocating matching funds for federao intercity passenger planning and construction programs. A resolution supporting the Southern High-Speed Rail Commission’sx efforts to create a line betweeb Atlanta and New Orleans is scheduledr to be introduced at the April 14 council ASoutheastern high-speed rail line could mean billiona worth of construction projects with regionapl leaders negotiating with the federal government to provide as much as 80 percent of the funds.
The council’e Transportation and Communications Committee votedc unanimously to send the resolution to the full Councilor Carol Duncan chairs the committee and said the timingv is right to back efforts to upgrade regional and nationaltransportation infrastructure. “We’re reallyy moving and it is getting exciting,” Duncan said. “Fundiny should be put in place. We’rr getting ourselves in place so it can happenin Alabama.” Alabama’a Southern High-Speed Rail Commission chapter needs $1.3 million to complete feasibility studies, according to state commissionm representative Richard Finley.
He said just the Atlanta-Birmingham line could be a $400 million Duncan said the state and region are working to ensur e the funds needed for Alabama to have a seat atthe high-speed rail table are available. Finley, chairman of the Souther n High-Speed Rail Commission, will host the group composed of representativezsfrom Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi in Birmingha on April 23. The commission will discus s a plan of action for seekingf federal funding to transform Crescent Corridoe intoa high-speed rail line. Birmingham Mayor Larryu Langford has called his own summit of15 Mid-South mayors to unite behind a line that could link Atlantza and Houston.
Langford mailed invitations for his April 30 summit onApril 3. The mayors of Atlanta, Houston, Tuscaloosa, Miss., Anniston, Baton New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulfport, Miss., Mobile are among those Langford invited. He hopes to forge a partnership with his peers to broker a major regional economicdevelopmentg project. With the federal government allotting $8 billion for high speer rail projects, Langford said a unitee effortis needed.
“We must join forces and agrese to cooperate if the mutual interests of our communities are to be met and that we are to receivew our fair share of the fundsw devoted to what I am callingthe ‘Mid-Soutj High Speed Rail Corridor,” Langford’s invitation said. Meridian, Miss. John Robert Smith applauded Langford’s visiomn and efforts to help the region speak with one voice as it seekxs its slice of thefederal high-speedd rail pie. “The corridorzs that link Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama are critical for the future development ofthe Southeast,” Smith “Mayors are the strongest and best advocatesa for rail in this country.
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