Soon after a proposed light-rail line for southeast Los Angeles County became qualified for federal dollars, the state transportation agency swooped in and awarded the project a $231 million grant.

The money for the Southeast Gateway project was awarded to L.A. Metro on Wednesday by the California State Transportation Agency from the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program.

It was the largest single award in this grant cycle.

The future 19-mile rail transit line was approved on Jan. 27, 2022, by the L.A. Metro governing board and will take riders from Artesia to downtown Los Angeles, a first-of-its-kind transit project serving southeast L.A. County.

The project has been estimated to cost between $7.1 billion and $9 billion. The Federal Transit Administration lists the project at $8.6 billion.

The project is planned to run through Artesia, Cerritos, Bellflower, Paramount, Downey, South Gate, Cudahy, Bell, Huntington Park, Vernon, unincorporated Florence-Graham and eventually to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. The route roughly parallels the 110 and 5 freeways.

The state funding goes toward the first phase, a 14.5-mile stretch from the Slauson A Line Station to Artesia, in an area of about 2 million people. That phase will break ground at the end of the month with utility relocation construction, and its completion is scheduled for 2035.

The second, 4.5-mile phase will connect from Artesia through Little Tokyo into L.A.’s Union Station. This phase will take at least another 10 years before funding and right-of-way purchases are secured and design plans and construction are completed, most likely in 2044 or later, L.A. Metro reported on Jan. 27.

As of February, Metro had set aside about $4 billion for its construction from Measure M, a half-cent sales tax measure for Metro capital projects. The state transit grant will add to the pot but does not close the funding gap.

Metro said in January the Southeast Gateway project is the agency’s top priority for securing federal dollars. The project was recorded by the Federal Transit Administration on Aug. 23, when it issued its Record of Decision for the first segment of the line. This opens the door for federal funding.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose Fourth District includes the southeast cities, in May lobbied for cash in Sacramento, making the trip with mayors from cities along the route.

“This is exactly what we have been working toward and what this project needs,” Hahn said in a prepared statement Wednesday. “I appreciate Gov. Newsom and his team for answering our call and recognizing the importance of the Southeast Gateway Line to the future of this region.”

Hahn and the local cities’ representatives also went to Washington, D.C., in September to lobby the Biden Administration for federal dollars.

About 44% of residents along the line live below the poverty level, and construction and operation of the line will create between 37,000 and 46,000 jobs and generate $5 billion per year in economic activity, Hahn said.

One-in-five residents are transit dependent and don’t have access to their own car, Metro reported.

“Residents across Southeast L.A. and the Gateway Cities have been taking two, three buses to get to work, to school, and to doctor’s appointments,” Hahn said. “These communities need and deserve this high quality, reliable rail line, that will not only help people get to their jobs in other parts of the county but will be an investment in jobs and businesses along the route itself.”

The project may have missed out on prior state funding cycles because of what Hahn said was a terrible name that was changed in January. Metro originally named the project the West Santa Ana Branch line, after an existing Pacific Electric Red Car right-of-way that once took passengers from L.A. all the way to Santa Ana in Orange County. That line has not run since 1961.

A renaming contest attracted more than 1,100 people who submitted ideas for its new name; 4,500 voted for their favorites, and the Southeast Gateway Line got the most votes.