Transit Windsor faces a potential loss of funding without an updated Transit Master Plan which provides the direction for transit ridership growth.
The requirement for increased capital funding is not currently included in the Asset Management Plan (AMP) as the Service Delivery Review was not completed at the time of the AMP. Federal and Provincial grants can be used to supplement current Transit Windsor projects in the capital budget. It is possible the 2023 AMP may identify a shortfall for maintenance of transit assets needed to implement the Plan.
Transit Master Plans support grant funding and shovel ready projects by having approved long term plans in place and work in conjunction with other City of Windsor Plans like the Active Transportation Plan, Asset Management Plan.
Financial Matters:
The Plan outlines Transit Windsor's capital and operating priorities over the next eight (8) years. The financial impacts of the Plan will be layered throughout the years as each capital project, along with Transit route changes and other operating enhancements are implemented. The estimated magnitude of the operating and capital impacts are outlined in attachments A and B, respectively. Each year Transit will bring forward through the annual operating and capital budget process, the specific financial impacts and Transit funding requests in order to successfully move forward with each future year's implementation needs.
Incremental operating costs have been estimated should the Plan move forward as presented and are shown below. These costs are presented in more detail in Attachment A and are based on estimates, which will be reviewed annually and refined as new information becomes available. In summary, the anticipated annual incremental costs related to the Master Plan recommendations are expected to total approximately $25.6 million over the next number of years should all recommendations of the service delivery review move forward as outlined in the consultants report. These incremental costs may be funded through ridership increases, the municipal levy, gas tax or grants.
| Transit Master Plan Estimated Incremental Operating Costs | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Total |
| Incremental Costs | $323,288 | $1,615,597 | $3,140,928 | $7,114,192 | $3,633,151 | $9,733,672 | $25,560,828 |
For 2019, Administration is recommending the revenue surplus achieved through increased ridership be transferred to capital to fund a necessary garage feasibility study. The cost of the garage feasibility study is estimated to be $250,000. Transit is anticipating approximately $250,000 in a revenue surplus for 2019. However, this amount will be finalized at year-end.
Administration will bring forward to the 2020 operating budget various budget requests which are imperative for laying the groundwork within Transit during 2020 to move forward with implementation of the Plan in 2021 and future years. These issues include an increase to Sunday service, increase to staff training resources and Transit Windsor growth initiative, which requests a transfer of surplus revenue from additional ridership growth during 2020 to a reserve for future Plan funding needs.