California’s high-speed rail CEO Ian Choudri resigned Wednesday, walking away from a $231 billion project that has yet to lay track and faces a 2027 cash cliff.
The New York Post reported that Ian Choudri quit as chief executive of the California High-Speed Rail Authority during a two-day board meeting, saying he needed to focus on personal and family priorities.
CalMatters obtained his resignation email. The board overseeing the project had been set to discuss whether he qualified for a potential $25,000 bonus tied to his performance this year.
Agency spokesperson Annie Parker told CalMatters his compensation had already been set at more than $534,000 for the year. At the same time, he was reported to be facing disciplinary action, including possible termination, over misspent authority money.
Choudri framed the exit as a hard personal choice after a short tenure.
"This has not been an easy decision, as leading the Authority has been one of the most meaningful and rewarding chapters of my professional life,"
he wrote in the email obtained by CalMatters. In a separate written statement he claimed a turnaround.
"I took on a project facing significant challenges and serious questions about its prospects for success, and led its turnaround into a successful program,"
he said. He was hired in August 2024.
An Inspector General audit found the rail authority paid out $592,900 in “unallowable” expenses incurred by consultants. The flagged items included rideshare trips to Tiki bars, an “escape room,” and first-class flight upgrades.
That audit landed on a project already under severe money pressure. Cost estimates run between $126 billion and $231 billion. The Trump administration pulled $4 billion in federal funding in July 2025 and labeled the effort the “Train to Nowhere,” citing incompletion and high expense.
Officials still hope for private investment after the federal cut. The project is currently set to run out of money in 2027 without ever having laid a single piece of track.
Choudri took a leave of absence in February after he allegedly intervened in a domestic dispute between his wife and his daughter at their Folsom home. Police arrested him on suspicion of domestic violence. The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute.
He returned to the job after that episode. The resignation came months later amid the bonus discussion, the disciplinary cloud, and the broader funding crisis.
His last day and successor remain unclear. The California High-Speed Rail Authority did not provide a public response in the immediate coverage after outreach for comment.
Xavier Becerra, the Democrat favored to be California’s next governor, told KCRA he would have removed Choudri if elected.
"There’s going to be a new sheriff in town,"
Becerra said. He added a sharper line on public trust.
"I need to gain the confidence of the public; I can’t gain it if I keep the same characters in place."
Republican Steve Hilton, who hopes to take the governor’s mansion, staked out the opposite course. He said he would nix the project entirely and replace it with a “Government Failures National Monument.”
Hilton also posted an AI-generated campaign ad contrasting a prosperous California under his leadership with a dystopian version under a Becerra administration, blaming soaring gas prices, struggling businesses, and worsening conditions on Skid Row.
Neither man will decide the next CEO tomorrow. But both made clear that the authority’s leadership and the bullet-train experiment itself sit at the center of the coming fight for Sacramento.
Taxpayers have watched years of promises, audits, and funding fights produce consultant perks and a 2027 cash deadline, still without track on the ground. California keeps writing bigger checks for the same empty result.
