Staff Report #12
August 30, 2023
To All Commissioners
Re: Financial Update – Specialized Transit Services – Operating Budget – July 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 seven-month period ending July 31, 2023. 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, 2023 (000’s omitted)
| Description | Actual | Budget | Amount Better (Worse) | Percent Better (Worse) | |
| Revenue | |||||
| Transportation | $ 272.0 | $ 318.0 | $ (46.0) | (14.5)% | |
| Province-provincial gas tax | 1,053.3 | 1,053.3 | – | 0.0 % | |
| City of London | 5,134.4 | 5,134.4 | – | 0.0 % | |
| Total revenue | 6,459.7 | 6,505.7 | (46.0) | (0.7)% | |
| Expenditure | |||||
| Personnel cost | 744.2 | 766.1 | 21.9 | 2.9 % | |
| Contract service cost | 4,993.1 | 5,639.1 | 645.9 | 11.5 % | |
| All other material expense | 90.9 | 100.6 | 9.7 | 9.7 % | |
| Total expenditure | 5,828.2 | 6,505.7 | 677.5 | 10.4 % | |
| Net favourable/(unfavourable) | $ 631.5 | $ – | $ 631.5 | 9.7 % | |
As indicated in the above table, the service has a net favourable operating budget performance to date of 9.7% or $631,500. An explanation of the variances is set out below.
Net Operating Costs
- unfavourable transportation revenue of $46,000 due to lower ridership than planned;
- favourable personnel costs of $21,900 due to timing of vacancies and less than anticipated overtime; and
- favourable contract service costs of $645,900 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, 2023 (000’s omitted)
| Description | Actual | Budget | Variance | % Variance | 2022 Actual | % Variance | |
| Eligible passenger trips | 135,891 | 147,100 | (11,209) | (7.6)% | 118,353 | 14.8 % | |
| Attendant/companion trips | 9,382 | 16,800 | (7,418) | (44.2)% | 7,559 | 24.1 % | |
| Total Trips | 145,273 | 163,900 | (18,627) | (11.4)% | 125,912 | 15.4 % | |
| Average fare | $ 1.872 | $ 1.940 | $ (0.068) | (5.5) % | $ 1.944 | (3.7)% | |
| Service Hours | 72,572 | 81,983 | (9,411) | (11.5) % | 71,768 | 1.1 % | |
| EPT per service hour | 1.87 | 1.79 | 0.08 | 4.4 % | 1.65 | 13.5 % | |
| Total trips per service hour | 2.00 | 2.00 | 0.00 | (0.0)% | 1.75 | 14.1 % | |
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