Staff Report #7
June 26, 2024
To All Commissioners
Re: Financial Update – Specialized Transit Services – Operating Budget – May 31, 2024
Recommendation
That the report be NOTED and FILED.
Background
Set out in the table below is the Statement of Operations for Specialized Transit Services for the five-month period ending May 31, 2024. The statement sets out actual to budget performance for the period.
London Transit Commission Statement of Operations – Specialized Transit Services Five Months Ending May 31, 2024 (000’s omitted)
| Description | Actual | Budget | Amount Better (Worse) | Percent Better (Worse) | |
| Revenue | |||||
| Transportation | $ 315.4 | $ 343.6 | $ (28.2) | (8.2)% | |
| City of London | 5,436.8 | 5,436.8 | – | 0.0 % | |
| Total revenue | 5,752.2 | 5,780.4 | (28.2) | (0.5)% | |
| Expenditure | |||||
| Personnel cost | 573.7 | 610.8 | 37.1 | 6.1 % | |
| Contract service cost | 4,899.4 | 5,066.8 | 167.4 | 3.3 % | |
| All other material expense | 96.6 | 102.8 | 6.2 | 6.1 % | |
| Total expenditure | 5,569.7 | 5,780.4 | 210.7 | 3.6 % | |
| Net favourable/(unfavourable) | $ 182.5 | $ – | $ 182.5 | 3.2 % | |
As indicated in the above table, the service has a net favourable operating budget performance to date of 3.2% or $182,500. An explanation of the variances is set out below.
Net Operating Costs
- unfavourable transportation revenue of $28,200 due to lower ridership than planned;
- favourable personnel costs of $37,100 due to timing of vacancies and less than anticipated overtime; and
- favourable contract service costs of $167,400 due to lower than budgeted service hours utilized.
Ridership
The following table sets out actual to budget ridership and other performance related measures as well as a comparison to the same period in the previous year.
Ridership and Other Statistics Actual vs. Budget Five Months Ending May 31, 2024 (000’s omitted)
| Description | Actual | Budget | Variance | % Variance | 2023 Actual | % Variance | |
| Eligible passenger trips | 115,971 | 131,900 | (15,929) | (12.1)% | 93,426 | 24.1 % | |
| Attendant/companion trips | 11,949 | 10,700 | 1,249 | 11.7 % | 6,498 | 83.9 % | |
| Total Trips | 127,920 | 142,600 | (14,680) | (10.3)% | 99,924 | 28.0 % | |
| Average fare | $ 2.466 | $ 2.410 | $ 0.056 | 2.3 % | $ 1.906 | 29.4 % | |
| Service Hours | 68,939 | 71,294 | (2,355) | (3.3)% | 50,508 | 36.5 % | |
| Total trips per service hour | 1.86 | 2.00 | (0.14) | (7.2)% | 1.98 | (6.2)% | |
Administration will continue to monitor the operating budget performance reporting on same on a monthly basis including providing recommendations as may be appropriate.
Recommended by:
Mike Gregor, Director of Finance
Concurred in by:
Kelly S. Paleczny, General Manager