There’s a new man in charge of California’s ambitious statewide high-speed rail project.
On Monday, the California High-Speed Rail Authority welcomed its new chief executive officer, Ian Choudri.
Choudri was officially sworn in as the CEO of the state agency, taking the reins from former chief Brian Kelly, who announced his plans to retire earlier this year after six years in the role.
Choudri was chosen to succeed Kelly in August following a nationwide search.
He joins the Authority after spending the last several years as Senior Vice President for HNTB Corporation, an infrastructure design firm headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.
Officials for the Authority say Choudri has more than 30 years of experience in the transportation sector and has worked on high-speed rail projects in France and in Spain.
He’s also been involved with past transit projects in the Golden State, having worked on developing future connections between the Ontario Airport and the Rancho Cucamonga station for Brightline West.
Outgoing CEO Kelly was responsible for getting the project back on track and acquiring funding for the high-speed rail system’s “Initial Operating Segment” connecting Merced to Bakersfield, which is expected to begin operations in the early 2030s.
In the coming years, Choudri will be tasked with overseeing the official opening of that segment, as well as procuring additional funding for the hundreds of other miles of track that is yet to be acquired.
There are currently more than two-dozen active construction sites in the Central Valley, and the authority is working to expand beyond the current 119-mile construction zone to the 171 miles of eventual track that will comprise the Initial Operating Segment.
Since construction crews broke ground on the California High-Speed Rail almost a decade ago, 46 critical structures have been built, 34 are currently underway and 57 miles of guideway have been completed, according to BuildHSR.com, the Authority’s construction tracking website.
Still, an exact timeline for when the entire project, billed as San Francisco-to-Los Angeles, remains uncertain.