A major development happened Tuesday in the ongoing battle to bring passenger rail service back to the Gulf Coast, and it could happen by Spring 2025.

In Mobile, Ala., city council members voted unanimously to approve a deal with Amtrak.

In that deal, the city of Mobile will pay $3.084 million to subsidize the rail service for three years.

“Everybody made that same deal,” Knox Ross, Chairman of the Southern Rail Commission explained. “Louisiana, Mississippi, they committed the same exact amount of money for that three year period. What that does is it gives us a chance to prove the concept.”