Stephen Harper has announced that the federal government will cough up $2.6 billion in funding forJohn Tory's SmartTrack transit plan. It's a rather big win for the Toronto Mayor, who finds himself the beneficiary of the Conservative party's need to butter up local voters with afederal election looming.

The funding, which is contingent on the approval of a formal application outlining SmartTrack, would come from the recently founded Public Transit Fund. If only aDowntown Relief Linewas actually on the table. Alas, the degree to which SmartTrack is aimed at the GTA rather than just Toronto makes it a more useful project for the Conservatives to endorse.

SmartTrack is estimated to require about $8 billion in funding, so this still leaves a long way to go, but it's still a significant infrastructure promise from the feds for Toronto. The mayor's office would do well to shore many of thefeasibility questionsthat surround the proposal sooner rather than later.