California – A high-speed rail line once billed as a transformative project linking San Francisco and Los Angeles in under three hours remains mired in delays , cost overruns, and uncertain funding more than 15 years after voters approved the initial investment.
The California High-Speed Rail project, first backed by a $10 billion bond measure in 2008, was supposed to be operational by 2020. Instead, zero miles of track have been laid, and the cost has ballooned to more than $100 billion—triple the original estimate.
Ian Choudri, the newly appointed CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, is now working to resuscitate the troubled effort. A European high-speed rail development veteran, Choudri has made it his mission to “turn it around” and demonstrate that the U.S. can deliver infrastructure projects of global caliber…