Houston - In Transit - Brief Article

Railway Age, August, 2003

The final piece of track for Houston's 7.5-mile Main Street corridor light rail project was welded into place on June 30. Still to be completed are stations, signaling, and the traction power system; about a third of the catenary is in place, Houston's Metropolitan Transportation Authority is also awaiting delivery of 17 light rail vehicles from Bombardier Transportation, One LRV was scheduled to arrive last month; the remainder of the order was scheduled to be delivered at a rate of one vehicle per week beginning this month.

One LRV is already on the property and has been making test runs from the maintenance facility to the Medical Center station. The $324 million line was originally scheduled for revenue service in October 2004 hut that was moved up to next Jan. 1 so trains would be ready to carry Super Bowl XXXVIII fans to the Feb. 1 game at the Astrodome. Project director Anthony Venturato claimed no light rail line of this size has ever been built faster: Groundbreaking for the system took place on March 13, 2001.