California high-speed rail leader pushes state to support private
investment
[April 30, 2025] By
SOPHIE AUSTIN
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A long-delayed project promising nonstop rail
service between San Francisco and Los Angeles in under three hours may
be able to secure the private funding it desperately needs if California
agrees to pay the investors back, its chief executive told The
Associated Press.
Ian Choudri, who was appointed CEO of the California High-Speed Rail
Authority in August, is tasked with reinvigorating the nation's largest
infrastructure project amid skyrocketing costs and new fears that the
Trump administration could pull $4 billion in federal funding.
“We started this one, and we are not succeeding,” Choudri said,
describing what drew him to the job after work on high-speed systems in
Europe. “That was the main reason for me to say, let’s go in, completely
turn it around, and put it back to where it should have been. Fix all
the issues, get the funding stabilized, and demonstrate to the rest of
the world that when we decide that we want to do it, we actually will do
it.”
Voters first approved $10 billion in bond money in 2008 to cover about a
third of the estimated cost with a promise the train would be up and
running by 2020. Five years past that deadline, no tracks have been laid
and Choudri acknowledges it may take nearly two more decades to complete
most of the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles segment, even if funding is
secured.
Funding woes
The project's price tag now exceeds $100 billion, more than triple the
initial estimate. It has mostly been funded by the state through the
voter-approved bond and money from the state’s cap-and-trade program. A
little less than a quarter of the money has come from the federal
government.
The authority has already spent about $13 billion. The state is now out
of bond money, and officials need to come up with a financing plan for
the Central Valley segment by mid-2026, according to the inspector
general’s office overseeing the project.
“The managers of the project were in trouble from the very beginning
because they never had the financing – certainly not stable and
predicting financing — that they would have needed to manage the project
efficiently,” said Lou Thompson, who led a peer review group that
analyzes the state’s high-speed rail plans.
Losing money from the federal government “would require a real hard
rethinking of what do we do to survive the next four years,” he said.
Rail leaders are in talks with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration and
state lawmakers on what will be needed to secure private investment,
Choudri said, adding that without the private sector money the state may
have to take out federal loans or issue new bonds. At an industry forum
in January, private investors expressed interest in the project but need
some form of security, he said.
Choudri is pushing Newsom and lawmakers to consider a program that would
eventually commit the state to paying back private investors, possibly
with interest. That would give the state more time to cover the cost.
Legislative Democrats say they remain hopeful for the project’s future.
But they haven’t unveiled any proposals yet this year in the state
Legislature to set aside additional funding and have resisted spending
more money on the project in the past.
Choudri plans to provide lawmakers this summer with an updated timeline
and price tag.
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The Tied Arch Bridge construction site, which will take high-speed
trains over State Route 43, is shown in an aerial view Tuesday,
April 15, 2025, in Fresno County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A.
Vásquez)
 An ambitious vision
Choudri aims to fulfill the original vision of building a pioneering
system — already common in Europe and Asia — that spurs economic
growth, curbs planet-warming emissions from cars and planes, and
saves drivers hours on the road.
At speeds up to 220 miles (354 kilometers) per hour, it would be the
nation's fastest way to travel by ground.
Amtrak’s Acela train transports passengers at speeds up to 150 miles
(241 kilometers) per hour to major cities including New York, Boston
and Philadelphia. Another rail line in Florida operating at speeds
up to 125 miles (201 kilometers) per hour shuttles people from
Orlando to Miami.
Construction is underway for a mostly privately funded high-speed
system to carry riders from Las Vegas to Southern California.
California's construction is far from completion. Of the 119 miles
(192 kilometers) of construction underway in the Central Valley,
only a 22-mile (35-kilometer) stretch is ready for the track-laying
phase, which isn’t set to start until next year.
Finishing the line in the Valley is just the first step. Next, the
train has to extend north toward the San Francisco Bay Area and
south toward Los Angeles. Choudri's goal is to build to Gilroy,
about 70 miles (113 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco. Under
current public transit, it would then take at least one more train
transfer to get into the city.
Southward, he envisions building to Palmdale, 37 miles (60
kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles. From there, it takes more than
one hour to drive or two hours on an existing train line to reach
Los Angeles.
“In the ideal world, you can take the 500 miles, build it in your
warehouse and then just drop it and everybody’s happy," Choudri
said. “But the programs are never built like that. You build
incrementally and that’s what we’re doing right now.”
Doubts for the future
Critics say the project will never be completed and may leave
towering and unusable infrastructure stretching through the state's
agricultural heartland. More than 50 structures have already been
built, including underpasses, viaducts and bridges to separate the
rail line from existing roadways for safety.
“We’ve now spent billions of dollars and really no tracks have been
laid,” said Republican state Sen. Tony Strickland, who is vice chair
of the Senate Transportation Committee.
Doug Verboon, chair of the Kings County Board of Supervisors, who
has fought the High-Speed Rail Authority in court over farmers' loss
of land due to the project, said the people who should be most upset
by delays are its longtime supporters.
“It doesn’t seem to me like the state government is in a hurry to
finish it," he said.
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