Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin wants to see high-speed rail between his city and Atlanta.He proposed the idea at a recent speech at the Birmingham Kiwanis Club, noting it could cut rail travel time between the two cities from four and a half hours to less than one hour. Woodfin said it would be part of a larger strategy to expand mobility options.Such a project would require cooperation from the state and federal governments as well as public and private partners.
A recent legal dispute shows how politically fraught the issue of high speed rail can be. California last month dropped a lawsuit officials filed against the Trump administration over the federal government’s withdrawing of $4 billion for the state’s long-delayed high-speed rail project. The U.S. Transportation Department slashed funds for the bullet train aimed at connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles in July. The Trump administration has said the California High-Speed Rail Authority had “ no viable plan ” to complete a large segment of the project in the farm-rich Central Valley.
The authority quickly filed a lawsuit, with Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom calling the federal government’s decision “a political stunt to punish California.”
The authority said this week that it would focus on other funding sources to complete the project, which is estimated to cost more than $100 billion.
“This action reflects the State’s assessment that the federal government is not a reliable, constructive, or trustworthy partner in advancing high-speed rail in California,” an authority spokesperson said in a statement.
The Transportation Department did not respond to a request for comment. President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have both previously criticized the project as a “train to nowhere.”
“The Railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will,” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social in July. “This project was Severely Overpriced, Overregulated, and NEVER DELIVERED.”
