Staff Report #2
February 28, 2024
To All Commissioners
Re: 2024-2027 Business Plan Update
Recommendations
That the report be NOTED and FILED.
Background
At the November 29, 2023 meeting, the Commission approved a contract award to Dillon Consulting for consulting services supporting the development of the London Transit Commission 2024-2027 Business Plan and supporting 5 Year Service Plans for the conventional and specialized services.
The timeframes associated with the approval of the multi-year operating and capital budgets have resulted in some adjustments to the planned work stream noting until such time as the budgets have been confirmed, it is difficult to prepare the supporting service plans. The amount of funding for growth on both the conventional and specialized services is an obvious key input into these plans, and should there be no growth allocations, the entire Business Plan direction would require adjustment. Given the uncertainties around the final approved budgets, administration made the determination that, in order to continue progress with the Business Plan update, it would be assumed that there would be some growth allocations available for both the conventional and specialized services; and should this not come to fruition, the work undertaken to date would be revisited.
In light of this approach, a number of workshops were held specific to a number of topics impacting the 2024-2027 Business Plan and supporting plans (service plans, accessibility plan, technology plan, etc.), summary details of each is set out below. It should be noted that a number of additional workshops are scheduled for the coming weeks to undertake assessments of corporate communications and marketing, conventional service plan, specialized service plan and service standards.
Business Plan Update – Vision, Mission, Value Statements and Strategic Outcomes Workshop
Members of the senior management team met with representatives from Dillon Consulting (Dillon) to review the Vision and Mission statements from the 2019-2023 Business Plan to discuss whether they continued to be applicable. The statements from the previous Business Plan are set out below.
Vision Statement:
The valued and trusted mobility choice for Londoners.
Mission statement:
Moving Londoners – progressively, reliably and affordably.
The vision and mission statements give direction to five congruent and competing strategic outcomes, namely:
- An integrated, affordable and valued mobility choice
- An engaged, diverse and respectful workplace
- Demonstrated fiscal accountability
- Being open, transparent and understood
- Effective utilization of infrastructure
Consensus during this workshop was that the vision, mission and strategic outcomes continue to be applicable and relevant for the 2024-2027 Business Plan, but may require minor adjustments to bring them up to date. Dillon has also completed an industry scan of other business plans, and will provide recommendations with respect to any suggested changes at a future workshop, taking into account administration’s feedback and best practices identified in the scan.
Information Technology Plan Update Workshop
This workshop focussed on updating the Technology Plan associated with the previous Business Plan, and included discussion with respect to the current system inventory as well as the identification of systems requiring upgrade/replacement over the new business plan horizon.
Dillon is also undertaking an industry scan with respect to the types of technology that are utilized by London Transit’s peers to identify whether any new avenues should be explored with respect to the manner in which the data collected from the numerous systems in place is shared and utilized. By way of example, a number of peer systems have created dashboards which display data from numerous systems in one place, mitigating the need to manually gather data from numerous sources and then cross-reference.
Specialized Transit Service Evaluation Workshop
This workshop focussed on the current state of the specialized service in an effort to identify areas of focus over the horizon of the next business plan. One of the initiatives that has been included in the previous two business plans has been the integration of the specialized and conventional services. This work has been deferred due to lack of capacity on both of the services, noting while this approach has been proven to reduce pressure on the specialized service in other jurisdictions, the rides are transferred to the conventional service, and current crowding conditions with the conventional service in London do not align with this approach. Dillon has been asked to conduct an industry scan on best practices with respect to service integration for consideration during the next business plan period noting the approach may have to be phased due to anticipated ongoing crowding concerns on the conventional service.
Accessibility Workshop
As set out in Communication #1, dated February 28, 2024, members of the Accessible Public Transit Service Advisory Committee participated in a workshop with Dillon representatives at their February 13, 2024 meeting. The workshop sought to gather feedback from committee members on the outstanding items in the Commission’s 2020-2025 Accessibility Plan as well as any accessibility issues they noted relating to the conventional or specialized services. In addition to the feedback gathered during the workshop, committee members were provided with a follow up list of questions to which they could respond directly to a Dillon representative.
The work plan established by Dillon for this project included two rounds of stakeholder communication, however this approach has been reconsidered based on a number of factors. From the rider perspective, the Voice of the Customer surveys were just completed and provide good insight into rider expectations and priorities. Additionally, the survey conducted as part of the 2024 Service Plan provided additional rider feedback that will be valuable input. With respect to members of Council, the City of London Strategic Plan and the final budget allocations to public transit services can be utilized to identify the priorities of Council. With respect to the general public, experience has been that providing something of substance to comment on versus asking open-ended questions has proven to provide more valuable feedback.
As such, administration and Dillon have confirmed that a broader stakeholder consultation will be undertaken later in the process, once draft strategic objectives and supporting plans have been established. This approach is likely to include a survey that will provide streams of questions for various stakeholder groups as well as public drop in sessions/virtual events.
Administration will continue to provide updates on this process as appropriate going forward noting it is anticipated the final recommended 2024-2027 Business Plan and supporting plans will be tabled for Commission consideration at the June 2024 meeting.
Recommended by:
Mike Gregor, Director of Finance
Katie Burns, Director of Planning
Shawn Wilson, Director of Operations
Joanne Galloway, Director of Human Resources
Craig Morneau, Director of Fleet and Facilities
Concurred in by:
Kelly S. Paleczny, General Manager