California high-speed rail 2026 plan charts SF–LA path

California high-speed rail 2026 plan has become the main reference point for how California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Ian Choudri now talks about the project’s past, present and future. In a recent appearance on The Maddy Report on KFSN ABC 30, he walked through how the programme started, what is happening on the ground today and how it could eventually knit together San Francisco and Los Angeles.

This is reported by the railway transport news portal Railway Supply.

California high-speed rail 2026 business plan at a turning point

Choudri, who took over as CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority in 2024, said he stepped in at a real turning point. In his words, the project had reached a moment “where either we’re going to do it, or we are not going to be able to finish it,” which pushed him to concentrate on changing how the programme is delivered and on rebuilding public confidence.

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Looking back, he reminded viewers that when voters approved Proposition 1A in 2008, expectations for high-speed rail were set before crucial details — exact routes, sequencing of work and so on — were fully worked out. At the same time, early federal funding linked to the Obama Administration created pressure to move into construction quickly. As Choudri put it, that meant crews were mobilised before land acquisition and utility relocation were ready. In hindsight, he said, the Authority should have “taken the time to buy the land on which we need to build the house” instead of sending contractors out while thousands of parcels were still tied up in disputes and litigation.

Central Valley progress between Merced and Bakersfield

Even with those early missteps, Choudri stressed that the scheme is now moving forward in a more disciplined and predictable way. On the Central Valley segment between Merced and Bakersfield, which runs for about 120 miles, guideway construction is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2026. After that, the plan is to move into track installation.

According to the California High-Speed Rail Authority, materials such as rail, catenary systems, poles and power equipment are already being bought for this Central Valley stretch. To handle deliveries, the Authority has opened a logistics facility in Wasco that receives shipments via the national freight rail network and feeds them into work sites along the Merced–Bakersfield corridor. Trade coverage by Railway Supply highlights the same theme: the procurement push is about being ready for track and systems work once the guideway is complete.

From the Central Valley to San Francisco and Los Angeles

Looking ahead, Choudri said the next California high-speed rail 2026 plan in the form of the Authority’s business plan, expected in early 2026, will outline a streamlined strategy for extending service north to Gilroy and south to Palmdale. Those extensions are meant to turn the Central Valley segment into part of a continuous corridor, answering the recurring question about the California high-speed rail San Francisco to Los Angeles timeline.

If the programme secures stable funding and the jurisdictional powers needed to navigate permitting and right-of-way issues, Choudri believes key extensions linking Merced, Gilroy, Palmdale and Bakersfield could be delivered in the latter part of the 2030s. As he put it, if the project is funded and the Authority has the powers it needs, connecting Merced, Gilroy and Palmdale by 2038 “is doable” as part of a long-term public infrastructure effort.

Federal funding, cancelled 4 billion USD grants and politicisation

Choudri also addressed criticism that intensified after federal decisions to cancel 4 billion USD in grants for the project, a step covered by national outlets such as Reuters. Big infrastructure schemes in the United States have always been complicated and prone to delay, he argued, pointing to examples like the Big Dig in the northeast and the build-out of the interstate highway grid. High-speed rail, in his view, should be treated as public infrastructure with long-term economic value rather than as a short-term political issue.

“Anytime an initiative in this country as big as this one has been undertaken in the past, the federal government has always partnered with local states and local governments,” he said. “So it is sad to see that the federal government is where they are today. This is a public infrastructure project paid for by the taxpayer, and they want to see the results.

“We have challenges, but they are no different from the challenges we had when we built the Big Dig in the northeast or when we built the interstate highway grid. I wish we were in the desert and there was nobody there, and we could have just done it like China. But we are not. And so we need to live in reality.

“If we are funded and have all the jurisdictional powers to do what we want to do, we can connect Merced, Gilroy, and Palmdale by 2038. It is doable. It is a public infrastructure project, so let’s not politicise it and use it as anything other than public infrastructure. I just want to find a way to tell the federal government that it is public infrastructure, not a game.”

Visible construction and why it matters for the region

At the same time, Choudri admitted that scepticism will not disappear until trains are actually running. For now, he points to physical progress — including 57 miles of completed guideway within the Central Valley segment — as proof that the project is “real, visible, and accelerating.” In practical terms, this construction is what begins to turn the California high-speed rail 2026 plan from a document into something residents can see along the corridor.

In closing, he focused on what the system could mean for the region once it is operational. A future 45-minute Fresno–San Jose high-speed rail trip, he argued, would reshape regional opportunities, support business expansion and open up new economic development in cities such as Merced, Madera, Bakersfield and Palmdale. That pattern, he noted, follows what has already happened abroad. “This is not something we are inventing,” Choudri said. “This is how high-speed rail transformed Japan, Spain, Italy, the UK, Germany, and France.”

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