U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy today declared the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s high speed rail project in default of the terms of its federal grant awards, threatening $4 billion in federal aid.

The detailed Federal Railroad Administration Compliance Review Report report, which is over 300 pages, provided details of missed deadlines, budget shortfalls and “overrepresentation of projected ridership.”

Duffy gave the  authority 37 days to respond, after which the grants could be terminated.

In a June 4 letter to Rail Authority CEO Ian Choudri, Drew Feeley, the acting administrator of the railroad administration, noted its report identified a trail of project delays, mismanagement, waste and skyrocketing costs.

The project has received approximately $6.9 billion in federal dollars in roughly 15 years “but has not laid a single high-speed track,” Feeley said in the letter. “Even with continued federal support, the project is far short of the funding needed to finish just a fraction of the track.”

“I promised the American people we would be good stewards of their hard-earned tax dollars,” said Duffy in a statement. “This report exposes a cold, hard truth: [California High Speed Rail Authority] has no viable path to complete this project on time or on budget.”

Duffy warned, “If they can’t deliver on their end of the deal, it could soon be time for these funds to flow to other projects that can achieve President Trump’s vision of building great, big, beautiful things again.”

“Our country deserves high-speed rail that makes us proud – not boondoogle trains to nowhere,” he said.

Duffy in February requested a review of the high-speed rail project.

At that time, the high-speed rail authority responded by saying it welcomed the review. The authority said at the time that 171 miles have been built and 14,600 jobs have been created by the project. The authority said it could account for all expenditures, and claimed the project is supported by a majority of California voters.

Three decades of journalism experience, as a writer and editor with Gannett, Knight-Ridder and Lee newspapers, as a business journal editor and publisher and as a weekly newspaper editor in Scotts Valley and Gilroy; with the Weeklys group since 2017. Recipient of several first-place writing and editing awards, California News Publishers Association.