Students and residents riding the bus may have to find alternate forms of transportation after Capital Area Transportation Authority eliminates some of its stops and routes in August.

CATA will be holding public hearings today and Tuesday to let the community help decide which routes can be cut, said Brad Funkhouser, director of service development for CATA.

Funkhouser said CATA is cutting routes because the cost to maintain and operate the buses has risen, while revenue has decreased. It also lost about $600,000 in funding from the state of Michigan.

“A lot of it was based on ridership,” he said. “Some (routes) we know we need to reduce by a trip but we aren’t sure which trip - that is why we are taking it to a public hearing to let the public help us decide some of those specifics.”

CATA has proposed eliminating about 50 hours a day of service beginning Aug. 20.

Officials are suggesting CATA discontinue Route 4, North Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard; Route 10A, North Lansing-Delta River; Route 12A, West Michigan-Airport; and Route 21, Hagadorn.

There are also proposed small changes, such as ending service on Route 1, East Lansing-Meridian Mall, earlier on Friday and Saturday nights when MSU is not in session and eliminating about seven bus trips to Capital City Airport.

Funkhouser also said CATA officials have been in the community talking to riders and businesses and have found most are disappointed in the cuts.

“It is a service cut and there is going to be an ouch,” he said. “We are trying to minimize the impact; we are trying to let them be involved and determine where that ouch is.”

Jack Sentle, a Lansing resident and an employee of Bruegger’s Bagels, 505 E Grand River Ave., rides CATA almost every day and is disappointed by the proposed eliminations.

“It sucks because the bus is supposed to be for everyone,” he said. “I’m sure there are people who still ride the bus on the stops they are cutting.”