RTD’s route-planning staff has recommended $12.1 million in bus and light-rail service cuts for January as part of the effort to eliminate deficits in the agency’s operating budget.

At a Tuesday night session of the Regional Transportation District board of directors, staffers proposed service reductions that include elimination of at about 20 bus routes, changes to scores of other routes, and light-rail cutbacks that should result in nearly $1 million in annual savings on RTD’s rail system.

For months, RTD officials have warned about budget deficits totaling tens of millions of dollars unless the agency embraces the twin strategy of reducing costs and increasing revenues.

The $12 million “adjustment” to service is being proposed to “right-size” RTD and “create long-term fiscal sustainability” at the agency, said Bruce Abel, assistant general manager for bus operations.

In addition to service reductions, RTD’s five-year strategic budget plan also includes anticipated 10 percent across-the-board fare increases scheduled for 2014 and 2017.

The proposal to cut non-productive or marginally productive routes that staffers presented to board members on Tuesday represents the deepest service reduction in decades at RTD, said agency General Manager Phil Washington.

“This will make us fiscally sound for the next four or five years,” Washington said.

He emphasized that the service cuts can be accomplished without layoffs among RTD workers.

The plan, if adopted by the board, would require about 110 fewer bus operators, but such a reduction can be achieved through normal attrition among drivers, and by shifting some bus operators to RTD’s new West Corridor light-rail line, Washington said.

The West line is due to open in May 2013, but training of light-rail operators for the line is expected to begin next year.

Abel, in presenting the plan to board members, said staffers aimed to be “surgical” in their approach as they weighed routes for cuts.

But the scope of the plan suggests it is major surgery.

Routes slated for elimination in the staff proposal include the Route 2 on East 1st Avenue, the 44Limited on West 44th Avenue, the 60 on South Pierce Street, the 79 on East Florida Avenue, the 104 Crosstown on 104th Avenue, and the 121L on Peoria Street.

Staffers presented data showing these and other routes generally ranking as among RTD’s least productive, as measured by the relatively low number of boardings and the high subsidy per boarding.

The staff recommendation also calls for elimination of six express bus routes — the 31x, 48x, 53x, 63x, 80x and 93x; the DD regional route between Boulder and the largely defunct medical campus at Colorado Boulevard and East 9th Avenue in Denver; and the Aurora, Parker and Superior call-n-Ride routes.

More than 50 bus routes are scheduled for service adjustments that include eliminating early morning or late night runs in some cases, or bumping 10-minute frequencies to every 15 minutes, or 15-minute service to every 30 minutes.

The proposal calls for RTD to no longer operate C line light-rail service between the I-25/Broadway station and Union Station in the off-peak period from around 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays, and similarly eliminate off-peak F line service between the Lincoln station and downtown Denver.

Some of the service will be picked up by expanded an expanded E line operation.

Rail riders will be able to transfer at the Broadway/I-25 station to other trains, but the proposed cuts may mean longer travel times for some passengers. Other cuts are slated for weekend rail service.

RTD plans to hold public hearings in late September and early October throughout the metro area on the proposed service reductions.

The board of directors will vote Oct. 25 on the final service plan and cuts will go into effect Jan. 8.

In the past, when more modest service reductions were proposed to RTD’s board, it was common for some directors to resist cuts to service in their districts.

In many cases, directors were successful in mobilizing public support for overturning staff recommendations on cuts, even if it meant the retention of routes with low ridership and high subsidization.

One goal of a recent RTD task force that crafted a plan for “long range fiscal sustainability” was to optimize service “emphasizing ridership cost-efficiency.”

RTD Director John Tayer, of Boulder, was chair of the fiscal sustainability task force and after the service-reduction plan was presented Tuesday night, Tayer called it the “most powerful rationale for making (RTD’s) revenue stream more sustainable.”

Still, as a sign of how difficult cost-cutting is when it gets close to home, Tayer also questioned RTD staffers on the wisdom of cutting the peak-period frequency on the Skip bus route in Boulder to every 10 minutes from the current 7-minute frequency.

That three-minute alteration to service would impact 2,500 boardings each weekday and save the agency about $138,000 a year, RTD said.

Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com