Staff Report #8
November 29, 2023
To All Commissioners
Re: Financial Update – Specialized Transit Services – Operating Budget – October 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 ten-month period ending October 31, 2023. The statement sets out actual to budget performance for the period.
London Transit Commission Statement of Operations – Specialized Transit Services Ten Months Ending October 31, 2023 (000’s omitted)
| Description | Actual | Budget | Amount Better (Worse) | Percent Better (Worse) | |
| Revenue | |||||
| Transportation | $ 403.3 | $ 475.0 | $ (71.7) | (15.1)% | |
| Province-provincial gas tax | 1,327.6 | 1,504.8 | (177.2) | (11.8)% | |
| City of London | 7,814.3 | 7,814.3 | – | 0.0 % | |
| Total revenue | 9,545.2 | 8,690.8 | (248.9) | (2.5)% | |
| Expenditure | |||||
| Personnel cost | 1,065.3 | 1,112.4 | 47.2 | 4.2 % | |
| Contract service cost | 7,450.2 | 8,544.6 | 1,094.4 | 12.8 % | |
| All other material expense | 125.4 | 137.1 | 11.7 | 8.5 % | |
| Total expenditure | 8,640.9 | 9,794.1 | 1,153.2 | 11.8 % | |
| Net favourable/(unfavourable) | $ 904.3 | $ – | $ 904.3 | 9.2 % | |
As indicated in the above table, the service has a net favourable operating budget performance to date of 9.2% or $904,300. An explanation of the variances is set out below.
Net Operating Costs
- unfavourable transportation revenue of $71,700 due to lower ridership than planned;
- unfavourable provincial gas tax allocation versus budget given lower operating costs;
- favourable personnel costs of $47,200 due to timing of vacancies and less than anticipated overtime; and
- favourable contract service costs of $1,094,400 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 Ten Months Ending October 31, 2023 (000’s omitted)
| Description | Actual | Budget | Variance | % Variance | 2022 Actual | % Variance | |
| Eligible passenger trips | 202,094 | 219,900 | (17,806) | (8.1)% | 172,941 | 16.9 % | |
| Attendant/companion trips | 14,571 | 25,100 | (10,529) | (41.9)% | 11,444 | 27.3 % | |
| Total Trips | 216,665 | 245,000 | (28,335) | (11.6)% | 184,385 | 17.5 % | |
| Average fare | $ 1.861 | $ 1.939 | $ (0.077) | (4.0)% | $ 1.931 | (3.6)% | |
| Service Hours | 107,147 | 122,690 | (15,542) | (12.7)% | 99,904 | 7.3 % | |
| EPT per service hour | 1.89 | 1.79 | 0.09 | 5.2 % | 1.73 | 9.0 % | |
| Total trips per service hour | 2.02 | 2.00 | 0.03 | 1.3 % | 1.85 | 9.6 % | |
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