Staff Report #9
October 28, 2020
To All Commissioners
Re: Financial Update – Specialized Transit Services – Operating Budget – September 30, 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 nine-month period ending September 30, 2020. The statement sets out actual to budget performance for the period.
London Transit Commission Statement of Operations – Specialized Transit Services Nine Months Ending September 30, 2020 (000’s omitted)
| Amount Better (Worse) | Explanation | Percent Better (Worse) | |||||
| Description | Actual | Budget | General Operating | COVID Impact | |||
| Revenue | |||||||
| Transportation | $ 190.0 | $ 544.9 | $ (354.9) | $ – | $ (354.9) | (65.1)% | |
| Province-provincial gas tax | 1,133.32 | 1,298.2 | (165.0) | (165.0) | – | (12.7)% | |
| City of London | 5,695.9 | 5,695.9 | – | – | – | 0.0 % | |
| Total revenue | 7,019.1 | 7,539.0 | (519.9) | (165.0) | (354.9) | (6.9)% | |
| Expenditure | |||||||
| Personnel cost | 824.1 | 879.8 | 55.7 | 55.7 | – | 6.3% | |
| Contract service cost | 5,542.1 | 6,438.7 | 896.6 | 45.3 | 851.3 | 13.9% | |
| All other material expense | 214.8 | 220.5 | 5.7 | 5.7 | – | 2.6% | |
| Total expenditure | 6,581.0 | 7,539.0 | 958.0 | 106.7 | 851.3 | 12.7% | |
| Net favourable/(unfavourable) | $ 438.1 | $ – | $ 438.1 | $ (58.3) | $ 496.4 | 5.8% | |
As indicated, the service has a net favourable operating budget performance to-date of 5.8% or $438,100. Of this favourable variance, $496,400 is attributable to the impacts of COVID-19 offset by $58,300 due to unfavourable general operating expenditures. An explanation of the variances is set out below.
The impacts attributed to COVID-19 in the table above are based on the assumptions of administration that have been applied from the onset of the pandemic, and include impacts which apply to March of 2020, which is not part of the period covered by the Safe Restart Funding program. As such, when reviewing the above table, it is important to recognize that the COVID column will not reconcile directly to the table in Staff Report 4, dated October 28, 2020, which deals only with impacts within the eligible period and those which are considered eligible under the Safe Restart Funding program guidelines.
With respect to the variances that have been attributed to COVID-19, the following explanations are provided:
Revenue
- unfavourable transportation revenue of $354,900 due to the implementation of free fares, corresponding with rear door boarding from March 20 to August 18, 2020. Prior to the impact of COVID-19, transportation revenue had been performing to budget through mid-March; and
- unfavourable provincial gas tax funding compared to budget as the allocation has been reduced to keep the PGT allocation to operations consistent with the budgeted 17.2% investment share.
Expenditures
- favourable labour costs of $55,700 relating to a reduction in labour hours compared to budget due to general operating impacts; and
- favourable contract service costs attributable to the reduced demand on service and thus fewer service hours due to COVID-19.
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.
Ridership and Other Statistics Actual vs. budget
| Description | Actual | Budget | Variance | % Variance | 2019 Actual | % Variance | |
| Eligible passenger trips | 108,590 | 241,800 | (133,210) | (55.1)% | 222,406 | (51.2)% | |
| Attendant/companion trips | 11,024 | 28,100 | (17,076) | (60.8)% | 26,088 | (57.7)% | |
| Total Trips | 119,614 | 269,900 | (150,286) | (55.7)% | 248,494 | (51.9)% | |
| Average fare | $ 1.589 | 2.019 | $ (0.430) | (21.3)% | $ 1.703 | (6.7)% | |
| Service Hours | 99,464 | 115,673 | 16,209 | 14.0 % | 109,627 | 9.3 % | |
| EPT per service hour | 1.09 | 2.09 | (1.00) | (47.8)% | 2.03 | (46.2)% | |
| Total trips per service hour | 1.20 | 2.33 | (1.13) | (48.5)% | 2.27 | (46.9)% | |
| Total Registrants | 11,152 | 10,691 | 4.3 % | ||||
As noted above, the lower than budget eligible passenger trips is directly related to the COVID-19 outbreak as trips were on budget prior to that point.
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