Staff Report #12
April 24, 2024
To All Commissioners
Re: Financial Update – Specialized Transit Services – Operating Budget – March 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 three-month period ending March 31, 2024. The statement sets out actual to budget performance for the period.
London Transit Commission Statement of Operations – Specialized Transit Services Three Months Ending March 31, 2024 (000’s omitted)
| Description | Actual | Budget | Amount Better (Worse) | Percent Better (Worse) | |
| Revenue | |||||
| Transportation | $ 183.0 | $ 202.0 | $ (19.0) | (9.4)% | |
| City of London | 3,193.9 | 3,193.9 | – | 0.0 % | |
| Total revenue | 3,376.9 | 3,395.9 | (19.0) | (0.6)% | |
| Expenditure | |||||
| Personnel cost | 328.7 | 359.5 | 30.8 | 8.6 % | |
| Contract service cost | 2,875.8 | 2,977.0 | 101.2 | 3.4 % | |
| All other material expense | 45.9 | 59.4 | 13.5 | 22.7 % | |
| Total expenditure | 3,250.4 | 3,395.9 | 145.5 | 4.3 % | |
| Net favourable/(unfavourable) | $ 126.5 | $ – | $ 126.5 | 3.7 % | |
As indicated in the above table, the service has a net favourable operating budget performance to date of 3.7% or $126,500. An explanation of the variances is set out below.
Net Operating Costs
- unfavourable transportation revenue of $19,000 due to lower ridership than planned;
- favourable personnel costs of $30,800 due to timing of vacancies and less than anticipated overtime; and
- favourable contract service costs of $101,200 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 Three Months Ending March 31, 2024 (000’s omitted)
| Description | Actual | Budget | Variance | % Variance | 2023 Actual | % Variance | |
| Eligible passenger trips | 68,026 | 77,500 | (9,471) | (12.2)% | 55,329 | 22.9 % | |
| Attendant/companion trips | 6,726 | 6,300 | 426 | 6.8 % | 3,770 | 78.4 % | |
| Total Trips | 74,750 | 83,800 | (9,048) | (10.8)% | 59,099 | 26.5 % | |
| Average fare | $ 2.448 | $ 2.411 | $ 0.038 | 1.6 % | $ 1.891 | 29.5 % | |
| Service Hours | 40,464 | 41,889 | (1,424) | (3.4)% | 29,531 | 37.0 % | |
| Total trips per service hour | 1.85 | 2.00 | (0.15) | (7.7)% | 2.00 | (7.7)% | |
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