December 17, 1997
Ms. N. Wong
Clerk
New City of Toronto
Station 1071, 7th Floor
Metro Hall
55 John Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5V 3C8
Dear Ms. Wong:
At its meeting on Tuesday, December 16, 1997, the Commission considered the attached report entitled, "Chief General Manager’s Report Period 10 October 5 To November 1, 1997".
The Commission took the following action:
(1) Received for information the attached Chief General Manager’s (CGM’s) report covering the period October 5 to November 1, 1997;
(2) Requested that a copy of this report be forwarded to the Chief Administrative Officer of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto for further forwarding to the Financial Advisory Board and the Toronto Transition Team;
(3) Requested that a copy of the cover report be forwarded to each Metropolitan Toronto Councillor for information (with the detailed CGM’s report available on request from the office of the General Secretary of the Commission or from the office of the Metro Clerk); and
(4) Requested that a copy of the full report be forwarded to the new City of Toronto Council for information.
The foregoing is forwarded to the New City of Toronto Council, Metropolitan Toronto Councillors and the Chief Administrative Officer for The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto for appropriate action, as detailed in the report.
Sincerely,
Vincent Rodo
General Secretary
1-64 (Attachment)
Copy: Ms. N. Wong, Metropolitan Toronto Clerk, The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto
Ms. S. Hoy, Acting Chief Administrative Officer, The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto
TORONTO TRANSIT COMMISSION
REPORT NO.
MEETING DATE:
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the Commission:
(1) receive for information the attached Chief General Manager's (CGM's) report covering the period October 5 to November 1, 1997;
(2) forward this report to the Chief Administrative Officer of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto for further forwarding to the Financial Advisory Board and the Toronto Transition Team;
(3) forward a copy of this cover report to each Metropolitan Toronto Councillor for information (with the detailed CGM's report available on request from the office of the General Secretary of the Commission or from the office of the Metro Clerk); and
(4) forward this report to the new City of Toronto Council for information.
DISCUSSION
(1) 1997 TTC Operating Budget
Year-to-date
Reflecting the ongoing improvement in the Metro and Greater Toronto Area economies, ridership for the year-to-date was 8.8 million rides (2.9%) over budget and 7.2 million over the comparative period in 1996 (page A3). However, the ridership comparisons for period 10 were somewhat distorted by two factors: (i) in 1996, the transit system was shutdown on October 25 due to the Days of Protest; and (ii) in 1997, there was a Province-wide Teachers' strike from October 27 to November 9. Nevertheless, passenger revenue for the year is $17.6 million (4.2%) over budget, because of the higher ridership and the continued higher use of cash fares. Expenses are $5.4 million over budget, mostly due to the additional bus rebuilds and bus service improvements, which commenced in September.
Year-end Projections
The following table summarizes the current year-end projections for ridership, revenues, expenses and subsidy. Detailed explanations follow.
*The $3 million operating subsidy cut approved by Metro Council in February of this year has been reflected and accommodated in the year-end projections.
Variance Explanations
Ridership and Passenger Revenue
It is projected that 1997 year-end ridership is likely to be as high as 381 to 382 million trips, 11 to 12 million over the 370 million budget. Corresponding passenger revenue projections remain at about $21 million over budget. This includes the estimated loss of $750,000 due to the Teachers' 2-week strike.
Other Revenues
This favourable variance reflects the $8.2 million settlement for back rents from Canada Square.
Expenses
Expenditures at year-end currently are projected to be $701.7 million, about $10 million more than budgeted, largely due to the additional service being operated and associated 18 year old bus rebuilds started earlier this year in response to the growth in ridership. All of the additional service is being operated within Commission-approved loading standards.
Loan Repayment to Metro
Based on the receipt of the $160 million budgeted subsidy amount and current revenue and expense projections, a $15.7 million repayment to Metro for the MTCT loan will be made this year; leaving $4.3 million still to be paid by the TTC to Metro.
Year-End Adjustments
At this time, staff are reviewing various balance sheet provisions such as unfunded employee benefits, long term disability liabilities, deferred revenues, inventory obsolescence, etc. Once these adjustments have been finalized, they will be reflected in the year-end results. Any net adjustments will affect the amount of the loan repayment to Metro.
Other Funding Pressures
• The impact of Provincial tax audits and prior years' capital subsidy audits are not yet fully known.
• The sale of surplus transit property designed to provide funds for the purchase of the new bus garage has not yet taken place. When a bus garage property is acquired, Metro will be required to fund this transaction until those properties are sold.
(2) 1997 Wheel-Trans Operating Budget
The ambulatory unaccommodated rate for the year is still projected to be 2% (page A7). Current projections for net expenses are that this budget will run $1.8 million under budget.
(3) 1997-2001 Capital Program
Expenditures for 1997 are projected to be $420.4 million, $46.3 million (9.9%) under budget. This underexpenditure is largely due to delays in the following projects: Purchase of Buses ($10.0 million), the Bus Garage Replacement Program ($9.8 million) and the Communications Program ($9.1 million). Refer to the summary of projected Capital Program expenditure variances on page A9b and the individual Project Status Reports (PSRs) for further details.
The Capital Program summary reports and variance explanations are presented on pages A9a to A9d. PSRs are presented in Section E for individual projects of significance.
(4) Other Items to Note Include:
·
99.5% of the service miles budgeted for the year-to-date were operated (page B1);
·
the number of complaints increased in period 10 regarding defective vending machines, discourtesy, service delays - surface, fare enforcement, and operation of vehicle (page B3);
·
the November 1 workforce level of 9,747 was 80 over the budgeted figure (page C1) as the total exceeded budget for the first time this year, primarily due to the additional workforce requirements for the service improvements and additional vehicle rebuilds endorsed by the Commission earlier this year at its meetings on April 1 and 15, with 35 positions filled in October 1997, 20 of them by Operators (page C2);
·
time lost due to workplace injuries in Plant Maintenance was 142% over target for the first nine months of the year, with period 9 continuing the adverse trend of the previous three periods. A comprehensive action plan with specific focus on awareness, prevention and recognition has been implemented (page D1-3c);
·
the trend on the miles per defect on subway cars continues to improve (page D1-4b);
·
the number of operator error trainstop contacts was 8 over the target of 13 in period 9, due to some new Operators and a reduced level of Supervision (page D1-6b);
·
overtime costs in Bus Maintenance, Bus Transportation and Streetcar Operations continued to be significantly higher than target, partly due to the earlier emphasis on the fleet augmentation program, a shortage of Operators, and the service improvements in September. For the recent period, the main reasons for overtime overexpenditures are as follows:
·
Bus Maintenance & Bus Transportation - workforce shortage relative to increased personnel requirements for increased service levels and vehicle requirements.
·
Streetcars - unanticipated track repair work on Queensway and ALRV axle testing.
(pages D1-9b, D1-10b and D1-11b);
·
there was a shortage of 60 buses for the morning peak service in September, with the 35 leased buses not arriving until November (page D1-9d); and
·
the number of trespass & bylaw charges and cautions laid was almost 49% higher than expected for the first nine months of 1997 (page D3-2d).
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