"This is a giant step in the process," SEPTA general manager John K. Leary Jr. said after the vote.
SEPTA is looking to the federal government to fund 80 percent of the project, with the rest of the money coming from the state.
Construction is expected to begin in 2003, with the system up and running in 2007. It would have 13 new stops west of Norristown, a spur to the King of Prussia shopping complex, and a new station at 52d Street.
Passengers on the system could travel from Reading to 30th Street Station in 83 minutes, from King of Prussia to Market East in 43 minutes, and from Phoenixville to Manayunk in 29 minutes.
"I can't think of a project of this scope and cost and this much territory that has been so universally welcomed," Bernard Cohen, SEPTA's assistant general manager, said in an interview last week. "We've had virtually no significant opposition."
SEPTA held 12 public meetings in the proposed corridor this spring, which were attended by more than 1,000 people, the agency said. There were concerns in some areas about where stations would be located, SEPTA officials said, but the overall response to the line has been positive.
Don Nigro of the Delaware Valley Association of Rail Passengers, an advocacy group, said his organization continued to have concerns about the project's price and whether the federal government would fund it.
"Jack Leary seems confident our congressional delegation will come up with the money," Nigro said. "If he's confident he can get it, go for it."
Leary said the system's projected ridership and potential to stimulate economic growth made it "one of the most competitive projects in the entire country."
David Fogel, director of long-range planning for SEPTA, said the federal government looked favorably on projects "that take riders out of their cars and onto mass transit."
