Mayor Richard Daley says he hopes more federal money will be funneled into the Chicago Transit Authority’s Circle Line project.

The Circle Line is set to receive $1.5 millions from the federal omnibus spending bill passed last week. The rail project was first proposed in 2002. It would link existing El and Metra tracks. Commuters wouldn’t have to travel downtown in order to transfer between trains. Daley yesterday said the project is needed.

DALEY: Everything comes downtown, and then you have to redistribute the people. First of all, the Circle Line is good, so you get everyone out of downtown. So it creates too much confusion in public transportation.

The price tag for the first phase of the project clocks in at a billion dollars and calls for building four new train stations. The CTA did not return repeated calls.