That's because the economic downfall has forced the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority to make a 9 percent service reduction, and commuters could feel the impact as soon as April 14.

The VTA Board of Directors' approval of service reductions on Feb. 6 would affect 62 bus lines and two light-rail lines out of 73 total transit lines.

Several of these 64 transit lines, such as Line 25 (East San Jose to De Anza College) and Line 51 (Vallco Fashion Park to Moffett Field) travel through Cupertino.

In addition to service cuts, other possible options for the agency to reduce its operating costs are layoffs and fare increases. In 2002, VTA laid off about 10 percent of its workforce and raised fares 15 percent.

According to John Pilger, VTA's public information manager, the declining economy has significantly affected VTA's money generated from fares, which comprises approximately 12 percent of the agency's revenue.

"There's a direct correlation between unemployment and VTA ridership," Pilger explained. "There were 124,000 layoffs in the county last year, and that has caused ridership to drop significantly."

According to Dina Braun, VTA's public information officer, ridership decreased 14.7 percent in 2001 and about 15.7 percent in 2002.

Besides money generated from fares, VTA receives 80 percent of its funding from local sales tax revenues and funding from the California Transit Development Act. In 2002, the local sales tax base dropped more than 21 percent, crippling VTA's operating budget.

"These changes have impacted our ability to maintain the level of service and provide all the services we would like to provide to the public," Pilger said.

Approved changes include deleting midday services, rerouting and eliminating the least-used services.

The 9 percent service reduction came after 14 public meetings, which took place throughout the county in December 2002. Originally the agency proposed a 10 percent across-the-board service reduction, which was later reduced due to public input.

"Public input is really important," Pilger said. "It helps us to balance between what people want and what we have to do. We threw out some of the proposed changes because of the comments we received from the public."

Pilger is unsure about the future.

He said, "We have to react with how much money comes in from the state. No one knows how quickly the economy will recover. So we don't know what's going to happen. We're hoping for the best."

In the meantime, VTA has formed an ad hoc committee to explore short- and long-term strategies, such as finding new revenue streams to maintain and improve transportation services in Santa Clara County.

For a complete list of proposed service reductions, visit www.vta.org.