Staff Report #7
September 27, 2023
To All Commissioners
Re: Financial Update – Specialized Transit Services – Operating Budget – August 31, 2023
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 eight-month period ending August 31, 2023. The statement sets out actual to budget performance for the period.
London Transit Commission Statement of Operations – Specialized Transit Services Eight Months Ending August 31, 2023 (000’s omitted)
| Description | Actual | Budget | Amount Better (Worse) | Percent Better (Worse) | |
| Revenue | |||||
| Transportation | $ 315.2 | $ 371.2 | $ (56.0) | (15.1)% | |
| Province-provincial gas tax | 1,203.8 | 1,203.8 | – | 0.0 % | |
| City of London | 6,045.4 | 6,045.4 | – | 0.0 % | |
| Total revenue | 7,564.4 | 7,620.4 | (56.0) | (0.7)% | |
| Expenditure | |||||
| Personnel cost | 855.5 | 884.0 | 28.5 | 3.2 % | |
| Contract service cost | 5,831.4 | 6,623.8 | 792.4 | 12.0 % | |
| All other material expense | 103.7 | 112.6 | 8.9 | 7.9 % | |
| Total expenditure | 6,790.7 | 7,620.4 | 829.7 | 10.9 % | |
| Net favourable/(unfavourable) | $ 773.7 | $ – | $ 773.7 | 10.2 % | |
As indicated in the above table, the service has a net favourable operating budget performance to date of 10.2% or $773,700. An explanation of the variances is set out below.
Net Operating Costs
- unfavourable transportation revenue of $56,000 due to lower ridership than planned;
- favourable personnel costs of $28,500 due to timing of vacancies and less than anticipated overtime; and
- favourable contract service costs of $792,400 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 Eight Months Ending August 31, 2023 (000’s omitted)
| Description | Actual | Budget | Variance | % Variance | 2022 Actual | % Variance | |
| Eligible passenger trips | 156,726 | 171,800 | (15,074) | (8.8)% | 137,171 | 14.3 % | |
| Attendant/companion trips | 11,100 | 19,600 | (8,500) | (43.4)% | 8,973 | 23.7 % | |
| Total Trips | 167,826 | 191,400 | (23,574) | (12.3)% | 146,144 | 14.8 % | |
| Average fare | $ 1.878 | $ 1.939 | $ (0.061) | (3.1)% | $ 1.939 | (3.1)% | |
| Service Hours | 84,370 | 95,786 | (11,417) | (11.9)% | 81,778 | 3.2 % | |
| EPT per service hour | 1.86 | 1.79 | 0.06 | 3.6 % | 1.68 | 10.7 % | |
| Total trips per service hour | 1.99 | 2.00 | (0.01) | (0.5)% | 1.79 | 11.3 % | |
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