In summary
Ian Choudri, who has led the rail agency since 2024, leaves a difficult legacy marked by budget problems, project delays and various scandals, including questionable taxpayer-funded consultant trips.
The CEO of California’s high-speed rail authority resigned Wednesday evening, saying he needed to focus on “important personal and family priorities,” according to a copy of the emailed resignation obtained by CalMatters.
“This has not been an easy decision, as leading the Authority has been one of the most significant and rewarding chapters of my professional life,” wrote chief executive Ian Choudri.
The abrupt announcement comes in the middle of a two-day meeting of the board that oversees the project, which continues Thursday. This follows Choudri’s tumultuous two-year tenure, which was marred by budget problems, project delays, transparency problems and various scandals, including the misuse of nearly $600,000 in taxpayer money for questionable trips by rail authority consultants.
Under Choudri, the authority also lost $4 billion in federal funding during President Donald Trump’s administration, after the agency repeatedly missed deadlines required by the funding agreement to purchase trains. The state initially sued Trump over the funding, but abruptly dropped the lawsuit in December 2025, accusing Trump of “not being a reliable partner” and instead turning to private investors.
Choudri did not respond to an email or text message from CalMatters seeking comment Wednesday evening. It is not known when his last day will be.
State investigators discovered last month that the railroad agency’s consultants took first-class flights, hailed high-end rides and went to a nightclub, cigar lounge and restaurants on taxpayers’ dime, sometimes at Choudri’s request. Most trips involved going to Folsom, the Sacramento suburb where Choudri has a home, sometimes after hours.
The board voted earlier this month to limit Choudri’s contracting authority following the investigation, requiring in-house legal counsel to sign off on contracts under $25 million first.
The board has been considering additional disciplinary action against Choudri for weeks, including possible termination, according to an authority source who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak on the matter.
In 2008, California voters approved a $10 billion bond to build a high-speed rail linking San Francisco to Los Angeles by 2020, at a projected cost of $45 billion. But progress has stalled due to rising costs, legal battles and funding uncertainties.
The authority’s latest business plan indicates the project could now cost between $126 billion and $231 billion, with the current 171-mile stretch between Merced and Bakersfield under construction and full construction expected by 2040.
The board was supposed to decide at this week’s meeting whether Choudri qualified for a potential $25,000 bonus based on his performance this year, agency spokesperson Micah Flores told CalMatters last month.
Choudri’s compensation this year is more than $534,000, according to agency spokeswoman Annie Parker.
Cost overruns, project delays, legal challenges
Choudri was hired in August 2024 after spending decades in transportation engineering, with experience building high-speed trains in France and Spain. The board hired him in part because of his “strong understanding of complex transportation projects,” according to Tom Richards, then chairman of the board.
Under Choudri’s leadership, the agency has continued construction of the Central Valley segment and is close to obtaining state environmental approval for the planned 500 miles of rail between San Francisco and Southern California. Newsom, a big supporter of the rail project, has committed $1 billion a year from the state’s climate fund to the rail project through 2045.
Choudri also led efforts to reduce consulting contract costs, attract private investment and speed contracting, the rail authority’s chief of staff, Mark Tollefson, said during a presentation Wednesday touting Choudri’s accomplishments.
On Wednesday, the board unanimously approved a $772.1 million contract with German company Siemens Mobility, Inc. to design, build and test three seven-car high-speed trains by 2030. The authority will also pay up to $63.7 million in import duties and tariffs because the trains will be designed and built in Germany.
The vote comes three years after the agency first issued a request for proposals for six train sets in August 2023 to qualify for more than $3 billion in federal grants, before ultimately losing funding following missed deadlines.
In his resignation letter, Choudri said he was proud to have transformed the project.
“I took on a project that faced significant challenges and serious questions about its prospects for success, and I led its transformation into a successful program,” he wrote.
But the project continued to face significant cost overruns, schedule delays and lawsuits.
The rail agency could run out of cash by December 2027, the inspector general’s office warned in July. Separately, the authority did not specify in its latest business plan that the Central Valley section is now expected to be completed by 2034 at a cost likely more than $40 billion, the inspector general said.
The authority also based its project schedule on the assumption that it would succeed in implementing legislative proposals that it failed to pass this year.
To save money, the authority proposed shortening the Merced-Bakersfield segment by 9 miles and moving the Merced station from downtown to South Merced, in apparent violation of state law. It also requested an exemption from environmental regulations and solicited contractors for the new location, sparking a lawsuit this month from the Central Valley coalition’s Community Alliance for a Sustainable Economy.
“This challenge follows illegal conduct by HSRA – proposing to move the Merced station from downtown, then acting as if that move had been approved when it was not,” the complaint states.
Questionable trips plague authorities
Between 2024 and 2026, employees at four consulting firms working for the Choudri agency billed the state for questionable trips to venues including gyms, a nightclub, an escape room, a tiki bar and a cigar lounge, according to last month’s investigation by the inspector general’s office overseeing the rail agency.
Many trips were poorly justified, but the agency routinely reimbursed them without sufficient verification, the inspector general said.
A legal consultant traveled between Denver and Sacramento 30 times a year, billing the state $86,500 in “travel time” and an additional $40,800 in reimbursements.
At a difficult meeting earlier this month, the board accused them of using the agency as a “piggy bank.”
Wednesday, Authority staff said consulting firms paid nearly $1.3 million in reimbursements to the agency.
CalMatters filed a public records request last month to obtain the questionable travel invoices from the inspector general’s office. The agency provided records from only one company, Nossaman, arguing that other consultants’ records are related to audits or investigations and therefore are not required to be publicly disclosed under a recent law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The released documents were largely redacted by the inspector general’s office and the rail agency, which argued that much of the information was protected by attorney-client privilege.
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