Staff Report #8
May 9, 2025
To All Commissioners
Re: 2025 Work Program – Specialized Services – First Quarter Update
Recommendation
The report be NOTED and FILED.
Background
The following report is provided as an update on major projects as set out in the 2025 Work Program that are ongoing in nature and were scheduled to commence and/or to be completed in the first quarter relating to Specialized Services.
1.3a – 2025 Service Plan Implementation – Specialized Transit
Given the multi-year budget approval for specialized services included growth for each of the years 2024 through 2027, direction to the contractor was provided upon approval of the multi-year budget that vehicles would need to be acquired in time to implement the increased hours for 2025 beginning January 1, 2025.
The allocation of increased hours for 2025 was determined based on a review of non-accommodated trip requests. The results of this review indicated that the highest unmet demand for trips was occurring on weekdays between the hours of 8:00am and 6:00pm. As such, four vehicles were added for 10 hours per day on these days, increasing the total in-service vehicles during peak operating times to 56.
With the addition of the 10,000 service hours in January, and in conjunction with the launch of the new system offering increased efficiencies, trip totals Monday to Friday regularly reach 1,200 per day with an average of 1,125 per day. This is a significant increase over trip total averages that rarely reached 1,000 per day prior to 2025. Additionally, over the first quarter, 95% of trips were delivered on time (within 30 minutes of scheduled time), and 96% of customers were on the vehicle for less than 60 minutes. Given the reporting and system stability issues have been addressed (see commentary below), regular reporting of monthly statistics will resume going forward.
To ensure resources were available consistently, the contractor executed a large hiring campaign, adjusted shift bids to create labour force stability, increased supervisor presence at shift start times, and has been successful in acquiring additional bus resources from other properties. Moving into the second quarter of 2025, daily downtime due to labour or bus resource shortfalls is averaging less than 5 hours per day (less than 1 percent of the total hours of service per day).
4.3 – Specialized Booking/Scheduling Software Update
Phase I Implementation
While the primary functionality of the system implemented in Phase I is in place, a number of outstanding issues continue to be addressed by the vendor, who had staff on site from April 29 through May 2.
As has been the case since cut-over, administration has continued to work with the vendor to adjust parameters to maximize service efficacy and the most recent visit was very successful in realizing substantial forward progress with respect to pick up time windows, internal user proficiency, vehicle capacity concerns, driver tablet refresher training and report generation to increase visibility. Schedules continue to meet expectations of administration; however, as stated, continuous improvements are the goal.
Further, the vendor has ensured stability going forward by moving LTC’s service to a dedicated server with capacity greater than current needs dictate, eliminating program stoppages and slowdowns.
Phase II Implementation
Phase II involves the launch of the Passenger Portal, which provides the ability for customers to manage their trip bookings and also submit trip requests online versus calling the booking line.
Subsequent to completion of testing undertaken by a select group of registrants, which did not identify any significant concerns, direct mailing to the registrant group began on April 14. In addition to the direct mailings, which are being sent out in groups of approximately 500, posters are on all vehicles providing contact information for registrants who wish to gain access to the portal immediately. To date, 71 registrants have been set up for access to the portal. Letters will continue to be mailed out on a weekly basis and registrants will be set up as they contact administration with the required details (email address and preferred method to be contacted via notifications). It is anticipated that all letters will be mailed to existing registrants by the end of May.
Feedback from other transit systems utilizing online portal options to request bookings indicates that approximately 10% of registrants choose to use this option. Regular updates will be provided as to the participation rates with the online portal as well as a breakdown between the trips booked via the online portal versus those booked via telephone.
Recommended by:
Shawn Wilson, Director of Operations
Concurred in by:
Kelly S. Paleczny, General Manager