President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the US Department of Transportation has rescinded roughly $4 billion in unspent federal grants for California’s high-speed rail, the long-delayed project intended to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco in under three hours. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, citing a 315-page Federal Railroad Administration review, faulted the project for missed deadlines, budget shortfalls and uncertain ridership projections. The department noted that about $15 billion has been spent over 16 years without a single mile of high-speed track laid and that total costs have swelled to as much as $135 billion. The funding withdrawal puts at risk a 171-mile starter segment between Bakersfield and Merced, where state officials say more than 50 bridges and viaducts are finished, 60 miles of guideway are complete and 15,500 jobs have been created as the project nears track-laying. California Governor Gavin Newsom called the move “illegal” and, together with the California High-Speed Rail Authority, filed a lawsuit in US District Court in Los Angeles on Thursday seeking to block the claw-back. The complaint argues that the grants are binding agreements the state has honored. The clash revives a years-long political battle over the nation’s largest infrastructure effort, which voters first approved in 2008. Without the federal money, California faces a multibillion-dollar shortfall just as it tries to move the project beyond its Central Valley construction zone.