4:13
The latest from California's high-speed rail boondoggle: --...
Tom Elliott@tomselliott
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Nov 09, 2026
~1 min read
The latest from California's high-speed rail boondoggle:
-- California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Ian Choudri was caught billing taxpayers to fly from Denver to Sacramento, to commute for work
-- Consultants were doing the same, even as the contract required them to relocate to California.
-- The inspector general's Sept. 15 report found $595,600 in unallowable consultant travel.
-- Taxpayers were billed thousands for furniture for the CEO's office, as well as adding tint to his taxpayer funded SUV
-- Taxpayers are paying as much as 10 times the legally contracted rates from the winning bid
-- Phase 1 cost estimates now run from $126 billion to $231 billion, against $45 billion when voters approved it in 2008.
-- When CBS California's @juliewattsTV confronted Choudri about these accounting issues, asking for documentation, he brushed her off & hours later, resigned, citing family priorities.
-- Current status: effectively zero miles of high-speed track built, ~$15–16 billion spent, after 18 years.
Is any of this money NOT going toward corruption?
-- California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Ian Choudri was caught billing taxpayers to fly from Denver to Sacramento, to commute for work
-- Consultants were doing the same, even as the contract required them to relocate to California.
-- The inspector general's Sept. 15 report found $595,600 in unallowable consultant travel.
-- Taxpayers were billed thousands for furniture for the CEO's office, as well as adding tint to his taxpayer funded SUV
-- Taxpayers are paying as much as 10 times the legally contracted rates from the winning bid
-- Phase 1 cost estimates now run from $126 billion to $231 billion, against $45 billion when voters approved it in 2008.
-- When CBS California's @juliewattsTV confronted Choudri about these accounting issues, asking for documentation, he brushed her off & hours later, resigned, citing family priorities.
-- Current status: effectively zero miles of high-speed track built, ~$15–16 billion spent, after 18 years.
Is any of this money NOT going toward corruption?
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