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Congress’ recently approved fiscal-year 2005 omnibus appropriations bill includes $80 million for Sound Transit’s Central Link light-rail line and $4 million for the Sounder commuter-rail program.

The $80 million appropriation is the FY2005 installment of a $500 million Full Funding Grant Agreement Sound Transit obtained from the Federal Transit Administration last year. To date, the agency has received $166 million in federal funding.

A year ago, Sound Transit broke ground on the Central Link project, which is scheduled to open in 2009. Currently, four of the five sections of the line’s initial segment are under construction and project costs are 5 percent below original estimates.