Transportation officials on Wednesday announced nearly $1.6 billion in federal funding for a key rail link through the Westside that could bolster Los Angeles’ fortunes in landing the 2024 Summer Olympics.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx joined regional officials in hailing the planned extension of the Purple Line subway 2.6 miles farther to Century City, and a step closer to a larger goal of pushing the line into Westwood.

The Purple Line is a key part of the LA 2024 Olympic bid committee’s effort to stage the games in Los Angeles. The group picked UCLA, with its existing sporting facilities and dorms, as the possible site for the Olympic Village.

The funding announced Wednesday includes $1.19 billion in federal New Starts grant money, and a $307 million low-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Transportation, to build the middle portion of a 9-mile extension that runs mostly along Wilshire Boulevard and will eventually end near the UCLA campus and the VA hospital.

Foxx said the money would help ease traffic in one of Los Angeles’ most congested neighborhoods, saying the extension through Beverly Hills and the Century City area “means less time stuck in traffic, and air that’s cleaner.”

Once completed, the full 9-mile extension would allow riders to travel between downtown Los Angeles and Westwood in 25 minutes, rather than spending more than an hour on buses taking the same route, Foxx said.

Mayor Eric Garcetti, who joined Foxx and Metro officials in Century City for the announcement, described a similar reduction in road time for motorists.

“For those of us who have driven this part of Los Angeles, it can take 20 minutes to go three blocks,” Garcetti said. “Now, when this is done, it will be 20 minutes to downtown Los Angeles.”

With the latest batch of federal funding, Metro officials say they are planning to build an underground route and two new stations — one at Rodeo Drive and Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills and another near the Avenue of the Stars in Century City, a hub of office buildings frequented by an estimated 358,000 workers.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said many workers who commute to the Westside area will benefit from the planned segment.

“All those people are going to the Westside to work, and going allegedly back home or to somewhere after work,” Kuehl said, explaining that the Westside “is second only to downtown L.A. as the biggest job center in the entire county.”

The project has an estimated total cost of at least $2.38 billion, according to a U.S. DOT funding recommendation report. Roughly a quarter of the costs will be covered by about $585.7 million from revenue generated by Measure R, a sales tax hike approved by Los Angeles County voters in 2008.

Garcetti, who is part of the Olympic bid committee, said Wednesday he believes the project “will be ready in time for the 2024 Olympics.” The city is in the running against Paris and Budapest for the opportunity to host the Olympics, with the International Olympic Committee scheduled to pick a city in September.

Metro CEO Phil Washington echoed that goal, saying that while the project is slated to be done by 2026, “our plan is to do the entire Purple Line before the Olympics.”

Local transportation officials have taken steps to secure enough funds to push up the project’s original 2035 completion date to help the city’s Olympics boosters bring the Purple Line route to Westwood by 2024. Measure M, the half-cent sales tax hike approved in November to fund transportation projects, calls for speeding up construction of the Purple Line so that it is completed between 2024 and 2027.

This isn’t the first major funding announcement for the Purple Line extension in recent years. The first part of the Purple Line extension project that runs 3.9 miles through the Miracle Mile area received a $1.25 billion New Starts grant and an $856 million loan from the U.S. DOT in 2014. That portion is still under construction.

The third part of the project will be a 2.6-mile route beginning in Century City and ending at the VA hospital in Westwood, with a stop near UCLA.

Foxx’s appearance in L.A. is thought to be his last one as transportation secretary, before the new presidential administration takes over Jan. 20. Some Metro officials, noting the expected change in political climate, joked that they should hold on tightly to the federal funding announced Wednesday.

“We are going to cash that check instantly,” said Metro board Chairman John Fasana, a Duarte city councilman.

Metro may not be able to deposit all of the $1.6 billion immediately, however, since Congress will need to authorize the funding as part of its annual budget.

Garcetti told reporters after the event that he believes the funding will be safe even under Donald Trump’s presidency, calling the funding agreements with U.S. DOT “bulletproof.”

In his experience, Garcetti said, it is not the practice of Congress to “politicize these projects,” since it could lead to a back and forth of Republicans and Democrats nixing each other’s funding priorities.

He also noted that the president-elect is a New Yorker and “a strong supporter of transit,” and, during a recent conversation, Trump seemed to display “a fluency about subways … and an enthusiasm for what we are doing.”