Staff Report #11 – Financial Update – Specialized Transit Services – Operating Budget – March 31, 2020

Staff Report #11

April 29, 2020

To All Commissioners

Re: Financial Update – Specialized Transit Services – Operating Budget – March 31, 2020

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, 2020. 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, 2020

(000’s omitted)

Description  Actual  Budget  Amount Better (Worse)  Percent Better (Worse)
Revenue
Transportation $ 155.7 $ 156.7  $ (31.0)  (16.6)%
Province – provincial gas tax 432.4 432.4 0.0 %
City of London 1,814.7 1,814.7 0.0 %
Total revenue 2,402.8 2,433.8 (31.0)  (1.3)%
Expenditure
Personnel cost 274.7 286.8 12.1  4.2%
Contract service cost 2,092.1 2,106.1 14.0 0.7%
All other material expense 32.3 40.9 8.6 21.1%
Total expenditure 2,399.1 2,433.8 34.7  1.4%
Net favourable/(unfavourable) $ 3.7  $ – $ 3.7  0.2%

As indicated, the service has a net favourable operating budget performance to-date of 0.2% or $3,700 with unfavourable revenues ($31,000) and favourable expenditures ($34,700) nearly offsetting each other through the first quarter of the year. Prior to the impact of COVID-19, transportation revenue had been performing to budget (January and February). The unfavourable transportation revenue variance is solely attributed to the decline in ridership as a result of the outbreak. Favourable expenditures are a result of slightly lower personnel costs and contracted services also impacted by the current environment.

Ridership

The table below sets out actual to budget ridership and other performance related measures as well as a comparison to the same period in the previous year.

Description Actual Budget Variance % Variance 2019 Actual % Variance
Eligible passenger trips 66,998 81,200  (14,202)  (17.5)% 73,700 (9.1)%
Attendant/companion trips 7,733 9,300 (1,567)  (16.8)% 8,889 (13.0)%
Total Trips 74,731 90,500  (15,769) (17.4)% 82,589 (9.5)%
Average fare  $ 2.083  $ 2.063  $ 0.020 1.0 %  $ 1.701  18.5 %
Service Hours 38.657 38,915 259 0.7 % 36,211 6.8 %
EPT per service hour 1.73 2.09  (0.35)  (16.9)% 2.04 (14.8)%
Total trips per service hour 1.93 2.33  (0.39) (16.9)% 2.28 (15.2)%
Total Registrants 10,947 10,691 2.4 %

As noted above, the lower than budget eligible passenger trips is directly related to the COVID-19 outbreak as trips were on budget in January and February with March seeing a sharp decline.

Administration will continue to monitor 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