Ian Choudri

Built World

Leading the 2026 business plan rollout and search for replacement funding after federal grants were terminated

California voters approved a bullet train in 2008 with a $33 billion price tag and a promise to whisk passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles by 2020. Eighteen years later, no train has run, the price tag for the full San Francisco–Anaheim line has climbed to roughly $231 billion, and the first segment — Merced to Bakersfield in the Central Valley — is not expected to carry passengers before 2033. On February 28, 2026, the California High-Speed Rail Authority released its Draft 2026 Business Plan, the agency's first full strategic update since the Trump administration pulled $4 billion in federal grants and California abandoned its court fight to get them back.

Updated 2 hours ago