Students will have to wait longer to catch a CyRide bus during the middle of day, according to changes announced Friday by the Ames Transit Agency Board of Trustees.

Decreased enrollment for the year at Iowa State and high fuel prices have forced the board to reduce CyRide’s operating budget by $112,000, according to a statement released by the transit agency Friday. This reduction caused the need for schedule changes.

With student fees accounting for roughly 60 percent of CyRide’s operating budget, and enrollment down 3 percent — or roughly 1,000 students — the transit authority is facing a deficit of about $196,000, said Warren Madden, vice president for business and finance and member of the Ames Transit Agency Board of Trustees.

Full-time students pay $45.50 per semester to CyRide in student fees, with a $3 increase approved next year by the Board of Regents.

“We went through a pretty lengthy input process and came up with changes that we needed to make to account for funding cuts,” said Tony Borich, CyRide board member and Government of the Student Body College of Design senator. “Fewer numbers of students are paying fees because enrollment is down, not because the city or university has cut funding.”

Madden said the board tried to minimize the impact of the changes as much as possible by altering the schedules for routes that had the fewest riders.

“We are still maintaining basic service; it’s just that the buses will not be as frequent in the middle of the day. We haven’t eliminated the basic route structure,” he said. “We don’t think that it fully presents that big of a problem. Instead of waiting 10 or 15 minutes, you may have to wait 20 or 30 minutes.”

The changes would affect roughly 31,000 trips per year and will reduce mileage on the buses by 23,000 miles, according to the release. CyRide is paying between $300,000 to $400,000 on fuel per year for its buses, according to CyRide officials.

“I think the plan we’ve come up with will work. We took public input, which is reflected in the new plan,” Borich said. “It’s not really a big deal, things shouldn’t change much. Everyone was happy with the final plan.”

Madden said the other option to make up the funding would have been to raise student fees.

CyRide schedule changes:

• No. 7 Purple Route — Eliminating six trips between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. (West Ames to campus)

• No. 3 Blue Route — Eliminating three trips in the late morning

(Schilletter Village to campus)

• No. 24 Silver Route — Eliminating all services on Sunday evening

• Cancel Moonlight Express on

Easter Weekend (beginning 2006)

CyRide route changes:

• No. 5 Yellow Route — Reroute to Crystal Street between Opal Drive and Duff Avenue

• No. 3 Blue Route — Reroute to Beach Avenue and Lincoln Way instead of Cessna Street, Country Club Boulevard, Ash Avenue, Storm Street and Welch Avenue (in response to closing the Towers dormitories)

• No. 5 Yellow Route — Reroute closer to the new apartment

buildings on Crystal Street

— Source: Ames Transit Agency