NRoute officials are reviewing the transportation system’s ridership and routes as they continue looking to trim expenses and continue operations.

“We’re going back a whole year. We’re looking at every stop,” Executive Director Evelyn Bumpers told NRoute commissioners Monday. “Before, we’ve looked at riders, but now we’re going back and look at routes and times to find out when people are riding to see when most of them actually ride the buses.”

The study is the latest effort by NRoute to cut costs and avoid being in the red, including a possible return visit to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to seek more funding.

“We want to see what cost savings we can come up with first,” commissioner Mark Buys said. “Then we’ll know what we need and we can go to the board with a specific number.”

NRoute asked the city for $264,063 for fiscal 2013, $129,063 more than the annual $135,000 allotted each year since 2009. The board continued the $135,000 for 2013. The system receives $30,100 from Warren County.

The commissioners in September appointed a committee of Buys, commissioner Don Brown and Bumpers to review and reduce the budget and keep NRoute in operation.

NRoute ended fiscal 2012 with an $83,726 deficit and begins the new fiscal year with a $24,761 negative cash flow. The budget for 2013 is $886,110 and includes about $470,000 in federal transportation funds through the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

Bumpers said after the meeting she has submitted a revised budget to the Mississippi Department of Transportation that is $153,190 less than the one approved in August.

One item eliminated from the budget is $45,000 for a mobility manager to coordinate transportation between NRoute and four other regional transportation systems, none of which agreed to participate.

Other cuts include reductions in office supplies and bus maintenance costs and travel and training for the NRoute staff. Bumpers also cut the projected revenue in fares from $45,000 to $37,000 and the projected income from the bus system’s transportation contract with Warren-Yazoo Mental Health Services from $45,000 to $40,000.

During budget discussions Monday, commissioners mentioned reducing bus routes and daily hours of operation.

They also discussed asking employees, including the system’s seven full-time and five part-time drivers, to take voluntary cuts in hours, but no action was taken, pending the results of the route study. Layoffs were not mentioned.

“I don’t want to see this system shut down,” Brown said. “We’ve got to keep it going until better times. If we close it down, we won’t be able to start from scratch when the better times arrive.

“If we go back and have to turn this system over to the city and say, ‘It’s yours,’ we will have exhausted everything we can do,” he said.

In other action, the board:

• Learned ridership for fiscal 2012 totaled 35,669 people, 427 more than the 35,242 people who rode in 2011. Fares were also up by about $1,569 over 2011, with $39,170.79 collected in 2012 and $37,601.58 collected in 2011.

• Approved the day after Veterans Day and Nov. 23, the day after Thanksgiving as holidays. Bumpers said one bus will run Nov. 12, the day after Veterans Day, for Warren-Yazoo Mental Health clients, and part-time drivers will work a short day on Nov. 23, the day after Thanksgiving.