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Yesterday, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) approved $33.1 million in regional funds for the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) agency’s project.

The action “validates our financial plan and completes the funding for the initial operating segment of the SMART rail and pathway project,” said SMART Chairwoman Valerie Brown in a prepared statement. “We will soon approve our first construction contract, which will create approximately 900 jobs by the end of the year alone.”

SMART plans to build a 70-mile commuter-rail line between California’s Marin and Sonoma counties. The initial operating segment, to be built between Railroad Square in Santa Rosa and downtown San Rafael, Calif., is the first phase of a project designed to create a new North Bay “backbone” to complement existing transit options that can alleviate traffic congestion and air pollution, SMART officials said.

Also yesterday, MTC agreed to include $18 million for SMART in a list of projects that the commission approved for federal funding through the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program.