Staff Report #15
August 28, 2024
To All Commissioners
Re: Financial Update – Specialized Transit Services – Operating Budget – July 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 seven-month period ending July 31, 2024. The statement sets out actual to budget performance for the period.
London Transit Commission Statement of Operations – Specialized Transit Services Seven Months Ending July 31, 2024 (000’s omitted)
| Description | Actual | Budget | Amount Better (Worse) | Percent Better (Worse) | |
| Revenue | |||||
| Transportation | $ 443.1 | $ 481.8 | $ (38.7) | (8.0)% | |
| City of London | 7,749.8 | 7,749.8 | – | 0.0 % | |
| Total revenue | 8,192.2 | 8,231.6 | (38.7) | (0.5)% | |
| Expenditure | |||||
| Personnel cost | 843.0 | 867.5 | 24.5 | 2.8 % | |
| Contract service cost | 6,866.9 | 7,108.9 | 242.0 | 3.4 % | |
| All other material expense | 246.1 | 255.2 | 9.1 | 3.6 % | |
| Total expenditure | 7,956.0 | 8,231.6 | 275.7 | 3.3 % | |
| Net favourable/(unfavourable) | $ 237.0 | $ – | $ 237.0 | 2.9 % | |
As indicated in the above table, the service has a net favourable operating budget performance to date of 2.9% or $237,000. An explanation of the variances is set out below.
Net Operating Costs
- unfavourable transportation revenue of $38,700 due to lower ridership than planned;
- favourable personnel costs of $24,500 due to timing of vacancies and less than anticipated overtime; and
- favourable contract service costs of $242,000 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 Seven Months Ending July 31, 2024 (000’s omitted)
| Description | Actual | Budget | Variance | % Variance | 2023 Actual | % Variance | |
| Eligible passenger trips | 162,191 | 185,000 | (22,809) | (12.3)% | 130,414 | 24.4 % | |
| Attendant/companion trips | 17,084 | 15,000 | 2,084 | 13.9 % | 9,404 | 81.7 % | |
| Total Trips | 179,275 | 200,000 | (20,725) | (10.4)% | 139,818 | 28.2 % | |
| Average fare | $ 2.472 | $ 2.409 | $ 0.063 | 2.6 % | $ 1.940 | 27.4 % | |
| Service Hours | 96,623 | 100,027 | (3,405) | (3.4)% | 72,572 | 33.1 % | |
| Total trips per service hour | 1.86 | 2.00 | (0.14) | (7.2)% | 1.93 | (3.7)% | |
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