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Even as commuters increasingly rely on public transit to get around, budget shortfalls are forcing Maryland and area governments to reduce services.

"It's happening countrywide, and it's certainly happening statewide," said Christopher Field, president of the Transit Riders Action Council of Metropolitan Baltimore, an advocacy group for people who use public transit.

The Maryland Transit Administration made its largest commuter service reductions in recent history when it announced Dec. 29 the elimination of several commuter bus and MARC train routes in an effort to reduce its budget.

Meanwhile, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is considering cutting hundreds of Metro jobs as well as train, bus and paratransit services because of "intense" economic pressures, Metro officials announced Thursday.

"The budget year ahead is as bleak as the national economy," said Metro General Manager John Catoe in a statement.

Metro is proposing a spending plan without asking local governments or riders to pay more. Metro faces a $176 million shortfall to its proposed $1.3 billion proposed budget.

The system is facing its first cuts in services in 13 years and is considering eliminating 891 jobs.

The MARC reductions, effective Monday, were criticized by many commuters at public hearings across the state, but MTA officials have called the reductions necessary because of dramatic declines in revenue.

"While we understand that in some cases the service reductions will be inconvenient and painful, we were able to minimize the number of customers affected," MTA Administrator Paul J. Wiedefeld said.

Among MTA's cuts:

-Elimination of the last round-trip train on the Penn Line, which runs from Baltimore to Washington, D.C.

-Combining two midmorning trains into one on the Penn Line.

-Elimination of the first afternoon train on the Brunswick Line from Union Station to Brunswick on Mondays through Thursdays.

-Elimination of shuttle bus service between the Odenton and Laurel MARC stations.

MTA's cuts also have hurt other counties.

Howard County took over funding for the MTA bus routes from there, but the service is being reduced.

Carroll County faced a similar issue last year when the state cut $200,000 in funding to a nonprofit agency that provides limited commuter bus service in the county, said Ted Zaleski, director of management and budget for the Carroll County government.

"The commissioners agreed to fill that gap, but we haven't started in on discussions for next year," he said.

Montgomery County's Ride On bus service, the largest in the state, is holding public hearings to reduce service on 12 routes, a move that has commuters worried about how they will get around.

Richard Merritt, 21, said his commute from his home in Germantown to his job in Takoma Park often takes 90 minutes, using Ride On to get to the Shady Grove Metro Station.

"This is really going to hurt a lot of working-class people," Merritt said as he waited this week at the bus stop at the Shady Grove Metro.

Phil McLaughlin, the Ride On manager of operations, said he wishes he could add services, too, but with the current need to cut the budget, changes had to be made.

"I don't even like reducing service because I want to increase ridership," McLaughlin said.

Most of the reductions occur on midday routes, when fewer people ride.

Ridership grew 5 percent this year, continuing a trend that has seen the number of bus riders increase 35 percent from five years ago, McLaughlin said.

The proposed Ride On reductions would save Montgomery County an estimated $250,000 for the remainder of this fiscal year and an estimated $1.2 million in fiscal 2010.

Ride On carries an average of about 100,000 people daily. The proposed reductions are believed to affect 900 daily riders.