“I stepped into this role knowing, very well, the path forward would be challenging. It’s not going to be easy. But we are definitely going to work together to make it happen,” Ian Choudri, the new CEO for the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA), told rail industry officials Thursday in Sacramento at the California High-Speed Rail Authority Industry Forum.
The 494-mile project to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles with trains traveling up to 220 mph has been hobbled by complications ranging from land acquisition to utility relocation to funding to political opposition, since voters approved a bond measure that paid for it in 2008. Completing the nearly 500-mile project is expected to cost about $130 billion, Brian Kelly, the authority’s former CEO, said in September in an interview with The Fresno Bee.
For now, however, the initiative is largely focused on completing the 171-mile stretch through the Central Valley connecting the cities Merced and Bakersfield, which is expected to cost $32 billion to $35 billion.
The project has faced “significant challenges,” Choudri said at the forum, adding that these were often related to funding, financing, scheduling “and sometimes, I would say, undo opposition.” The Authority, he said, is “laser focused on building more, and getting it delivered, sooner, economically smarter, and faster. And we can do it. It’s not complicated.”
In addition to the 171 miles of rail line under construction, 85 structures — from viaducts to overpasses and grade separations — are either underway or completed, Peter Whippy, the Authority’s chief of external affairs, said during the forum. Up to 24 stations will be constructed and the project will soon begin the phase of laying track and erecting the overhead catenary system of wires supplying electricity.
“We want the system up and running and connecting communities, and moving people, sooner, faster. That’s our objective,” said Choudri.
Ultimately, the project will connect with what authority officials refer to as the “high desert hub” in Palmdale, in northeast Los Angeles County, positioning the train to link with Brightline West — the other high-speed rail project under development in California. It will join Los Angeles with Las Vegas. That 218-mile project is being developed as a private venture and is using existing right of way along Interstate 15. Its service is expected to begin in 2028.
A 60-mile proposed “high desert corridor” from Palmdale to Victorville would connect the CHSRA train with the Brightline project. This connection would establish a fast rail route from the Central Valley to Las Vegas.
“This really kicks in the very new concept of a Southwest high-speed rail network,” the CHSRA CEO said.
At the north end of the CHSRA line in the Bay Area, officials intend to connect to the newly electrified Caltrain system in Gilroy south of San Francisco.
Achieving these not-insignificant goals will require a restructured and more streamlined organization, and a willingness to look at options like public-private partnerships, Choudri said, as well as technology innovations in areas like artificial intelligence and automation.
“This is not just about reorganizing just the structure of the authority. This is also about a fundamental shift in the way we will approach the work going forward,” he said, as he described the organization moving away from what he described as a “siloed, bureaucratic mindset, and toward a business-like mind, more results-driven.”
“We will run it like a business, and make sure we are investing every dollar wisely,” Choudri said. “We want to make sure it’s clear that we are committed to connect the Bay Area to Los Angeles. That is the goal. And we are not moving away from that.”