Staff Report #10
October 30, 2024
To All Commissioners
Re: Financial Update – Specialized Transit Services – Operating Budget – September 30, 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 nine-month period ending September 30, 2024. The statement sets out actual to budget performance for the period.
London Transit Commission Statement of Operations – Specialized Transit Services Nine Months Ending September 30, 2024 (000’s omitted)
| Description | Actual | Budget | Amount Better (Worse) | Percent Better (Worse) | |
| Revenue | |||||
| Transportation | $ 569.0 | $ 621.5 | $ (52.5) | (8.4)% | |
| City of London | 10,059.0 | 10,059.0 | – | 0.0 % | |
| Total revenue | 10,628.0 | 10,680.5 | (52.5) | (0.5)% | |
| Expenditure | |||||
| Personnel cost | 1,077.6 | 1,127.0 | 49.4 | 4.4 % | |
| Contract service cost | 8,909.9 | 9,267.9 | 358.0 | 3.9 % | |
| All other material expense | 273.3 | 285.6 | 12.3 | 4.3 % | |
| Total expenditure | 10,260.9 | 10,680.5 | 419.6 | 3.9 % | |
| Net favourable/(unfavourable) | $ 367.1 | $ – | $ 367.1 | 3.4 % | |
As indicated in the above table, the service has a net favourable operating budget performance to date of 3.4% or $367,100. An explanation of the variances is set out below.
Net Operating Costs
- unfavourable transportation revenue of $52,500 due to lower ridership than planned;
- favourable personnel costs of $52,500 due to timing of vacancies and less than anticipated overtime; and
- favourable contract service costs of $358,000 due to lower than budgeted service hours delivered.
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 Nine Months Ending September 30, 2024 (000’s omitted)
| Description | Actual | Budget | Variance | % Variance | 2023 Actual | % Variance | |
| Eligible passenger trips | 207,369 | 238,500 | (31,131) | (13.1)% | 168,572 | 23.0 % | |
| Attendant/companion trips | 22,261 | 19,400 | 2,861 | 14.7 % | 12,889 | 72.7 % | |
| Total Trips | 229,630 | 257,900 | (28,270) | (11.0)% | 181,461 | 26.5 % | |
| Average fare | $ 2.478 | $ 2.410 | $ 0.068 | 2.8 % | $ 1.968 | 25.9 % | |
| Service Hours | 124,672 | 128,960 | (4,289) | (3.3)% | 95,474 | 30.6 % | |
| Total trips per service hour | 1.84 | 2.00 | (0.16) | (7.9)% | 1.90 | (3.1)% | |
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