The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority will get $20 million from the state to aid its recovery from last month’s mass shooting, officials announced Monday, but it remains unclear when its light rail service which has been idled ever since will resume.

State Sen. Dave Cortese and Assemblyman Ash Kalra succeeded in shoehorning the funding request into budget “trailer bills” to be voted on Monday and sent to the governor’s desk, after consulting with VTA and union leaders on what would be needed to restore the rail service. They said approval is expected.

“We’re pleased to announce that plea for help and for resources was met with the kind of action it deserved,” said Cortese, who led the effort. “We think it will affect the VTA families and workers in a profound way, and help VTA resume services sooner rather than later.”

The money can go toward grief counseling for traumatized workers and families of the slain, staff training or retraining and relocation, facility repairs, improvements, reconfiguring and relocation where necessary, as well as safety upgrades to prevent future total light rail or bus system shutdowns.

“This money is a huge help,” said VTA spokeswoman Stacey Hendler Ross. She could not say when rail service would be resumed.

“We hope it can be weeks, not months, before we can get it started,” Hendler Ross said. “We’re as eager to get this back up and running as our passengers are who need it, but there are a million moving parts to putting this service back together, it’s just not something that can be done quickly. It’s not just a matter of flipping a switch and starting the trains again.”

Interim VTA General Manager Evelynn Tran said June 17 that the agency has launched a task force to oversee the effort and hopes to have service back “in the coming weeks.”

The three-line light rail network that runs for more than 40 miles through the South Bay was shut down hours after the May 26 shooting rampage by a troubled VTA maintenance worker who killed nine coworkers before taking his own life as officers closed in. It is the Bay Area’s deadliest mass shooting.

VTA initially provided buses to cover the rail service but had to stop in order to maintain their regular routes, leaving thousands of rail riders without another way to get around.

Restarting rail service where 379 VTA employees worked at the yard, the only facility where light rail trains are stored and maintained, is both logistically and emotionally challenging. At least in the near term, it’s likely the operations center at the rail yard where the shooting took place will be fixed up and put back into service. The VTA’s buses are being run temporarily from another offsite facility, but it isn’t suitable for running both the bus and the rail system.

The light rail center also suffered damage to specialized equipment necessary to operate the service. Cortese, who was escorted through the building afterward, described it as a “disturbing scene,” with shattered glass and bullet holes visible in computer equipment.

In his first remarks since the massacre he witnessed, John Courtney, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, which represented the workers and gunman, said “there’s damage all over the place.”

“There is no playbook for what we all went through, and I can tell you some amazing chapters are being written now,” Courtney said, adding that “probably the most sensitive” matter is “our mental condition.”

Hendler Ross said that “some people may not want to go back to work there” and that “we’re trying to take all that back into consideration.”

Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, a VTA board member, said that the agency eventually hopes to tap into state and federal transit infrastructure funding to replace the operations center where the tragedy took place, something she estimated would cost at least $85 million.

In the past week, some family members of the slain have voiced frustration over the shooting and its aftermath, saying they feel the transit agency could have stopped the gunman, who had a history of troubled interactions with coworkers, and hasn’t done enough to help them afterwards.

Annette Romo, widow of shooting victim Tim Romo, said after Monday’s announcement that she has been unable to connect with a counselor through VTA, and doubted the additional state money will help.

“I don’t think it’s helpful for any of the families,” Romo said. “I think they should be doing a lot more since none of us have received a dime from VTA.”

VTA has said in response that the agency is trying “to help all of the families stricken by this senseless tragedy with compassion and sensitivity” and “making every effort to provide clarity and support at every turn.”

Courtney said Monday that the union also is “trying our best” to help them.

“I can tell you one thing — we’re 100 percent behind all the families,” Courtney said. “We will do whatever we can.”

Kirk Bertolet, a VTA light rail signal maintainer, said he won’t return to the operations center where he saw six of his co-workers perish — he plans to retire in August from the agency where he’s worked for 12 years.

“It was a rough day,” Bertolet said, “and I’m still struggling with it.”

But Bertolet was unsure how helpful the additional VTA funding would be. He’s already receiving counseling through the agency’s Kaiser health plan and has filed a worker’s compensation claim. What’s needed more, he said, is holding management accountable for problem employees.

The gunman was the subject of five investigations into his workplace conduct before the rampage, but VTA has said it has no records indicating he ever directly threatened his coworkers.

“They had the opportunity to do something and didn’t, and I can’t believe they’re still employed there,” Bertolet said. “But if they got money to help people, that’d be great. It would be nice if they took care of the employees.”

Staff Writer Emily DeRuy contributed.