Here’s the news directly from Swamplot…

There’s still “some uncertainty” over the exact schedule, but all the pieces needed to allow Metro to open Houston’s second and third light-rail lines won’t be in place until late December, according to reports delivered to a committee of the transportation organization’s board of directors last Friday.

[…]

The contractor building the lines won’t be ready to turn over the completed tracks until September 30th to Metro, which will then need approximately 60 days to prepare for their operation.

Just for further verification, I went ahead and asked METRO via Twitter, and they gave the same response as quoted above.

The article also cites delays in construction of axle counters, and construction that of a separate building project in downtown. Not mentioned however is the continuing drama surrounding METRO’s delivery of rail cars.  At this point, the CAF-USA factory in New York has actually made adjustments to be able to build the cars and ship them to Houston as quickly as possible.  But as Off the Kuff notes in a recent post, the delay for the opening of both lines actually gives  more time to get the necessary cars operational.

Delays have their annoyances, but it’s far more important that these lines start when everything is done the right way than it is to try and rush the process.  Let’s hope that METRO can get them running soon.