Bombardier has confirmed it will miss yet another delivery target for the TTC’s $1-billion streetcar order.

The Quebec-based rail manufacturer was supposed to have delivered almost 150 of the vehicles by now, but in May 2016 it set a new target of a cumulative total of 70 by the end of the year.

In October, the company reduced that goal again to 65. But on Thursday a Bombardier spokesperson said it now expects to produce just 63 by Dec. 31.

“We’ve confirmed to the TTC that we are mitigating issues in our supply chain and that a total of 63 cars will be shipped (by the end of the year),” said Eric Prudhomme in an email.

“We are working over the holidays to honour our commitment.”

In response to the latest delay, TTC spokesperson Brad Ross said the order was “unacceptably behind.”

As the delivery schedule has slipped the transit agency has been forced to keep older streetcars on the road for longer than planned, and deploy buses on some streetcar routes. The TTC says this has created a vehicle shortage that prevents it from maintaining planned service levels in some cases.

“We eagerly await more (streetcars) so we can deliver the transit service the people of Toronto need and deserve,” Ross said.

The agency placed the order for 204 larger, accessible streetcars in 2009, with the contract stipulating delivery of the entire fleet by the end of 2019. But by the end of last year, Bombardier had supplied only 30 vehicles.

As of Thursday, the transit agency had 57 new cars on its property, with the next three in various stages of transit. CP Rail is expected to pick up the 61st for shipping from the company’s Thunder Bay, Ont. plant on Friday.

Prudhomme blamed Bombardier’s inability to meet the latest revised target on problems with the company’s international supply chain. He said company executives recently met with key suppliers to “demand corrective measures to improve performance and accelerate delivery.”

He said that since launching a recovery plan last year that included expanding its production capability in Thunder Bay, Bombardier has more than doubled its rate of production.

In a related development Thursday, Metrolinx, the regional transit agency for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, announced it was cutting the number of light rail vehicles it is purchasing from Bombardier by more than half, to 76 from 182. The value of the contract, which was originally for cars to run on the Eglinton Crosstown and other Toronto-area LRT lines, was also reduced to $392 million from $770-million.

The move comes after a bitter legal dispute over what Metrolinx says are unacceptable production delays.

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The TTC is already exploring the possibility of using an alternate company for its next purchase of streetcars once the 204-car Bombardier order is complete, but Ross wouldn’t say whether the agency is considering following Metrolinx’s lead and reducing the size of its original purchase.

“We won’t be commenting on Metrolinx’s actions today,” he said.

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