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Count the Twin Cities’ Metropolitan Council among the rail industry constituents lauding President Obama’s proposed fiscal-year 2012 transportation budget. Yesterday, council officials announced the budget would quadruple annual federal funding for the Central Corridor light-rail project from $45 million recommended in FY2011 to $200 million proposed for FY2012.

“This is another concrete example of the Administration’s strong support for the Central Corridor Project,” said Metropolitan Council Chairperson Susan Haigh in a prepared statement.

Scheduled to enter service in 2014, the 11-mile Central Corridor light-rail link between downtown Minneapolis and downtown St. Paul is projected to create at least 3,400 engineering, construction, management and operational jobs, according to the council.

Earlier this month, the Federal Transit Administration forwarded the project’s Full Funding Grant Agreement to Congress. The agreement commits the federal government to covering half the project’s $957 million cost.