Less than two years after expanding service to Saturdays, the NRoute Transportation Commission has voted to end the weekend mini-bus runs and reduce the number of routes from nine to seven, effective Oct. 1, in an attempt to shore up its operating deficit.

“The numbers are just not adding up,” NRoute Executive Director Evelyn Bumpers told the commission at its monthly meeting Wednesday evening.

Routes No. 8 and 9, which travel along U.S. 61 South and Porters Chapel Road, will be eliminated. Those routes were added about a year after the initial seven were identified and the public transit system was created in June 2006.

Bumpers said the elimination of the two routes and Saturday runs, which went from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., will save the commission $89,668.99 a year. To date in the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30, NRoute is running about $96,000 in the red. Commissioner Mark Buys said “we’re hoping we can get more support from the private sector” to end the fiscal year in the black.

Bumpers said the reduction in runs and the route closures could “possibly” lead to reductions in NRoute staffing. The transit system currently has 11 full-time and five part-time employees, including drivers and administrative staff.

The two routes being eliminated “are just not productive at all,” Bumpers said, drawing in about 10 to 15 passengers per day.

The Saturday runs were drawing about 45 to 50 riders across the nine routes, she said.

“As much as we hate it, it’s necessary,” Commissioner Don Brown said of the service cuts.

In March, single fares rose 25 percent to $2, while daily passes were raised by 33 percent to $4. Weekly passes went to $15, up from $10, and monthly passes rose from $30 to $35.

Bumpers said she did not think fare increases have contributed to lower ridership numbers across all routes this fiscal year.

A total of 57,886 riders was recorded last fiscal year. With just more than one month left in the current fiscal year, ridership is at 45,233. Average monthly ridership is about 4,100 in the current year, compared to just more than 4,800 last fiscal year.

NRoute gets about 63 percent of its approximately $781,000 annual operating budget from the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

The City of Vicksburg provides about 21 percent funding, while the Warren County Board of Supervisors provides roughly 5 percent. Fares account for about 7.5 percent.

The transit system has lost all corporate sponsors since garnering an initial $320,000 in tax-deductible pledges from local businesses at its inception.

Operated as a department of the City of Vicksburg at its outset, NRoute became an independent utility in February 2007 and formed the transportation commission in August 2008.